It gets me every time.
Without fail, a chorus of "boos" echoes through Beaver Stadium every time a call goes against Penn State -- even after a play has gone through the instant replay process. Whenever a play is reviewed, the final call has to be correct, right?
On second thought, maybe the fans are onto something.
Anyone who watched the absolute travesty that was the officiating in Iowa City last Saturday would see why.
By no means do I want to start throwing around conspiracy theories.
But, first, in its upset attempt, Indiana was up against a fairly wide gap in talent against Iowa. In addition, on any given play, the Hoosiers seemed to be facing an 11-on-18 situation.
That's 11 Hawkeyes, and seven Big Ten officials. Actually, you can add the guys up in the replay booth into the equation too.
On three of the times plays went up to the review booth, the wrong call was made anyway. Naturally, each went in favor of Iowa -- you know, the Big Ten's only hope for an undefeated season.
Twice, Indiana's Ben Chappell tossed what appeared to be touchdown passes that were ruled incomplete following instant replay, and earlier, a horrible spot after a third-down play was upheld.
To be fair, Indiana did score a touchdown the play after one of the reviews, and after the bad spot, Chappell drew Iowa offsides on fourth down. Neither really mattered.
But the line was drawn by the officials, and that's one way to lose 42-24 despite six Iowa turnovers. Well, that, along with the Indiana defense appearing to do nothing but stand still the entire fourth quarter.
Officiating incompetence has been a troubling theme in college football all season.
For one, we all watched a week and a half ago as the Michigan Stadium clock mysteriously stopped for several seconds after a running play and the officials did nothing.
Officiating problems have also been widespread in the SEC all season, with coaches getting reprimanded weekly for speaking out about their teams getting jobbed by bad calls.
Don't get me wrong, I can't even imagine the pressure officials are under. It's an incredibly tough job where you get no credit for getting things right but are thrust into the spotlight after each mistake.
Calling a holding penalty when four 300-pound linemen are blocking your view is difficult.
But for many situations, instant replay is a solution that should have a 100 percent rate of accuracy.
This isn't forecasting the weather. Officials can't afford to get important calls wrong, especially when they can watch a few minutes of slow motion close-ups on a TV monitor.
When blatant mistakes are made, we all see it. But all fans can do is "boo," and all coaches can do is get reprimanded for speaking out.
Where's the accountability?
Matt Brown is a senior majoring in journalism and is the Collegian's football editor. His e-mail address is mdb5082@psu.edu.
