Baffling first down call costs Fresno State shot at comeback vs. Boise State
Before delving into the controversial call, we should begin by stating the obvious: No, Fresno State did not lose to Boise State because of referees. It did not suffer its second setback of the season Friday night because of one solitary inch.
But a refereeing crew that apparently was ready to head home did cost the Bulldogs one last-gasp shot at a comeback.
A Boise State first down with under a minute remaining sealed the Broncos’ 24-17 win. But TV pictures cast considerable doubt on the “first down” …
The situation
With 1:04 to play in the fourth quarter and Boise State up seven, Fresno had just spent its final timeout. The Broncos faced a 3rd and 1 from their own 38. A first down would seal the game. A Fresno stop would, most likely, force Boise to punt with around 20 seconds to play.
And the 23rd-ranked Bulldogs appeared to have gotten that stop. Boise running back Alexander Mattison was tackled right around the line to gain. The referees, without measuring, definitively ruled Mattison short. It was fourth down …
… until it wasn’t. The crew (correctly) stopped play to review the spot. Then things got weird.
The review and the call
“After further review, the ruling on the field stands,” the referee announced.
But then: “We will measure to see if it’s a first down.” Which, again, would have been a proper thing to do … if the referees hadn’t decided against measuring in the first place.
Then the real controversy: The measurement certainly appeared to reveal that Mattison was indeed short of the line to gain. Per the college football rulebook, “the yardage chain shall join two rods … [whose] inside edges [are] exactly 10 yards apart when the chain is fully extended.” So if there was any space in between the ball and the inside of the rod, no first down.
Except for this particular set of Mountain West refs, apparently:
Fresno State players had an excellent view of the measurement, similar to the one TV cameras gave us, and they were immediately up in arms, just like viewers around the country. There is quite clearly blue turf in between ball and sticks. And if anything, the camera angle cuts down that space. Fresno players and coaches had every right to complain.
The lack of first-down technology is inexplicable
The refs appear to be at fault. But at the root of the problem is an inexplicable reluctance or refusal from their superiors to implement technology that would make these types of first down calls easier.
If soccer can have goal-line technology and tennis can have the Hawk-Eye system, there is no reason the NFL and college football can’t adopt similar systems that improve both accuracy and expediency. Chips in footballs. High-performance cameras. In the year two thousand and eighteen, it really isn’t that complex.
Instead, we’re still relying on human judgement; the pairing of that human judgement, often off of an obstructed-view replay, with an exact spot on the field; and the same humans’ assessment of where that spot is in relation to a marker, which is apparently an issue as well.
Did the call cost Fresno State?
Probably not. Had Boise’s punt team executed, Fresno would have had two plays, give or take one, to go around 70 yards. It needed to find the end zone. And with no timeouts left, it had little or no use for the middle of the field. Boise’s win probability, at this stage, was above 99 percent.
But stranger things have happened in college football. Robbing Fresno of that <1 percent isn’t right.
Did the referees want to get to bed?
The game ended at 11:45 p.m. local time. [Insert thinking emoji here.]
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