INDISPUTABLE Evidence?!

Maybe it's the attorney in me, but I cannot seem to get over the total disregard for the standard of review concerning replay in college football. Maybe it's the Ole Miss fan in me, but I cannot get over the way the Ole Miss/Alabama game ended on Saturday.

The NCAA adopted the replay rules with the specific standard for overturning a call on the field: Indisputable evidence. In order to overturn a call, the replay official must see indisputable evidence that the official on the field messed up. As the articles that have followed the game make clear, there was absolutely no indisputable evidence to overturn the call on the field on Saturday. Even if you happen to agree that it's most likely that the Ole Miss player stepped out of bounds on his own and then touched the ball first when he came back in, surely you wouldn't argue that the evidence was indisputable that this occured. The clear evidence: it's STILL being disputed, days later.

On a slightly related note, the Birmingham media has shown its blatant bias in reporting ever since the game. On Sunday, instead of discussing the controversial call, or the mediocre play by the Crimson Tide, the media thought that the crux of the issue lay in the bottles and cups thrown on the field after the call was made. The articles followed with a condescending explanation of Alabama's superior class from their god-I mean coach-Nick Saban. Pardon my disgust, but please. Anyone who has EVER sat in the Alabama student section would not try to point fingers on such an issue (Need proof? Here.). And anyone who has even watched an LSU game on television would surely roll their eyes.

Let's deal with the real issue here, if you don't mind. The game was stolen from the Rebels. Simply stolen.