College football has an officiating problem; Joel Klatt shares how to fix it

No. 1 Georgia, the defending national champion, will battle the No. 3 TCU Horned Frogs in the CFP National Championship. Both teams squeaked out one-score wins in the College Football Playoff semifinals, as Georgia edged No. 4 Ohio State in the Peach Bowl, 42-41, while TCU beat No. 2 Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl, 51-45.

While the action on the field was thrilling, one of the storylines of the semifinals was officiating, as both games featured some controversial rulings.

One of those directly hurt Michigan. Down 14-3 in the second quarter, Wolverines wide receiver Roman Wilson reeled in a 49-yard touchdown. After further review, though, Wilson was ruled short of the goal line. On the next play, Michigan’s Kalel Mullings fumbled a goal-line carry, and TCU recovered the loose ball in the end zone for a touchback.

Later in the game, TCU cornerback Kee’yon Stewart went to tackle Michigan tight end Colston Loveland and made contact with his helmet into Loveland’s upper back. After reviewing the play for targeting, no such call was made.

Meanwhile, in the Peach Bowl, Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. was putting together a stellar performance for the Buckeyes, totaling 106 receiving yards and two touchdowns on five receptions. Near the end of the third quarter, Harrison took a blow to the head area from Georgia defensive back Javon Bullard in the back of the end zone. The play, which knocked Harrison out of the game, was initially ruled targeting. Upon further review, though, the call was overturned.

Ohio State eventually settled for a field goal and was unable to score a touchdown the rest of the game.

On the latest edition of “The Joel Klatt Show,” Joel Klatt expressed frustration at how officiating played a role in the two games, asserting that Ohio State “probably” wins if the targeting call on Harrison is upheld. He also said that officiating in college football is “broken,” specifically when it comes to the use of replay.

“Replay is totally broken because in some conferences you’ve got replay that I think is overzealous,” Klatt said. “And the reason is because the people that are in charge of those conferences and those officiating bases, they emphasize and teach and scrutinize their officials in a little bit different ways than other conferences. So you have massive differences, or what end up being massive differences, in the way a replay official will view his role in the game from conference to conference. For that official, in the replay booth, to get involved, fine you want to stop the play. There was not one look that makes you take a touchdown off the board in a national playoff game. Like, I’m sorry, but that’s egregious.

“The targeting at the end was also clearly targeting. There’s no way you can review that, watch him literally spear the kid and say that’s not targeting … As a college football fan, replay is broken when they get involved in any play that’s clearly a touchdown, and they call it not a touchdown. That’s not your role.”

How to fix officiating in college football

Klatt shared recommendations on how to improve officiating. No. 1 on his list? Establishing a national pool of referees, as opposed to letting each conference manage its own officiating crews.

“At least when you’re operating with this system there can be the illusion of bias. There can be at least the suspicion of bias,” Klatt said. “Do we want that? No. We can take that out right away. How? National officiating bodies. No one conference should have their officials. It should be a national officiating base. I’ve heard from several coaches during the course of the last couple of days, and they agree with me. I don’t think that there’s any reason why we should be emphasizing certain rules in one conference more than another just based on who their supervisor is and how they’re teaching them. That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.

“Every official should be rated and graded by one entity: a national body of officials. Then we should then disperse and have national officials all over, and then guess what? No one would ever ask in a college football playoff game, ‘well, where are these officials from? Nobody.”

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