Good read John. The blown call in Oregon was the result of officials on the field giving in to crowd noise/atmosphere...and was later amplified by a big time mistake (purposeful, in my honest opinion) by the replay official. There is no doubt in my mind, and noone will convince me otherwise, that those PAC 10 officials purposely blew those calls...at least to some degree. I umpired high school baseball for years. I missed several calls over the course of many games, but I am proud to say that I never blew one on purpose. I do, however, understand the emotions that the home crowd can evoke on officials, especially when the home team is coming from behind and is on a roll. Those PAC 10 officials fell victim in this situation. None of them could find the ball, so what the heck, give it to Oregon.

As for the replay official, if he had the necessary angles (and ABC says he did), then he just flat screwed up. He knew the correct call, but did not make it. THAT IS CORRUPTION...whether he did it for $$$ or for PAC 10 supremacy or for whatever reason. If he did not have all the angles, which were available for every needed replay prior to the onside kick, then his assistant is the corrupted felow (the assistant runs the technology). If neutral officials were used, this may not have happened.

As for the OSU game, the field referee obviously either didn't know the rules (a cardinal sin for any official in any sport), or chose not to abide by the known rule...which is again corruption. The replay official should also know the rules and let the field referee know that this particular play can not be reviewed.

In the end, instant replay has probably added 20 pages to an already loaded rule book. I am not sure that the time needed to try and get every call correct is worth the results we are seeing. In the NFL, where everything is standardized from stadium to stadium, replay is ok.

And to conclude my soapbox moment, I'll point out that someone who the nation would respect needs to step forward and admit that some officials simply stink. Most do a good job and bust their rump to get it right. But a few of them are either incompetent, or worse, dishonest. The idea that every official is an angel flying around with integrity dripping off his wings is naive. Sadly, the many people whose voice could be heard are making big $$$$ on college football, and thus won't consider the obvious.