It’s a tale as old as time: Big 12 officiating getting trashed by coaches, players, athletic directors, and fans around the league.
That was no different in Week 11, as multiple head coaches in the Big 12 complained in post-game press conferences about the calls their team received.
The first coach to do so was Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire, who wound up on the losing end of a matchup with Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes.
“It’s third and seven, and we bring pressure,” McGuire said. “It’s an incomplete pass, and when you watch that play, somebody tell me how you can call roughing the passer on that, how you can no-call five obvious face masks, one that they reviewed for targeting. It’s tough for me to say too much ’cause it’s 41-27, and I’ll sound like that, but in a game like this, we have to be better, and the officiating has to be better at this level.”
A few hours after the conclusion of Colorado-Texas Tech, BYU took down the Utah Utes, which sparked some controversy in the Holy War. The Cougars drove the field with less than two minutes remaining to get into field goal range for the game-winner. The drive was altered on a 4th and 10 stop which would have sealed the deal for Utah, before a flag for defensive holding extended the drive for BYU.
Whittingham criticized officiating in the contest, but perhaps the biggest backlash came from Utah AD Mark Harlan, who called out the entirety of the league.
“I’ve been an athletic director for 12 years,” Harlan said. “This game was absolutely stolen from us. We were excited about being in the Big 12, but tonight I am not. We won this game. Someone else stole it from us. I’m very disappointed. I will talk to the commissioner. This was not fair to our team. I’m disgusted by the professionalism of the officiating crew tonight.”
While it’s no secret that Big 12 officiating continues to be an issue, at some point when fighting for the title, officiating has to be left behind. Texas Tech drops to 4-3 in the league, Utah to 1-5, while Colorado and BYU roll to the top two places in the league.
