UGA News

After much outcry against the excessive celebration penalty on AJ Green in Saturday’s LSU-UGA game, the Southeastern Conference is admitting that its officials were wrong:

“There are times when the camera moves away from the players, but what we saw and when the flag came out, we’ve determined that the video that was taken from a different perspective than the official had, the video doesn’t support what the official called,” [Rogers Redding, SEC Coordinator of Officials] said.

But, there will likely be no repercussions for the incorrect referee:

Redding said any action against any officials — if there is any — are kept internally.

“We move on,” Redding said. “This is a teachable moment for us to let the officials know to remind them of the rule and remind them of their responsibility to make good judgments. This is always going to be a judgment call, just like pass interference is a judgment call or holding or roughing the passer or offsides or anything else.”

But still, the wrong official feels bad:

“He (the SEC official) is beating himself up pretty bad over this one.”

I feel real sorry for this guy.  Although this guy (and the SEC officiating crew) did defend their call after the game was over (“following a brief team celebration, Green made a gesture to the crowd calling attention to himself”).

See coverage of the SEC’s screw-up at the ABH, AJC, CBS, and Bulldogs Blog.