I know I said last week’s column would be the season’s final look at college football, but something surfaced this week that I just have to comment on.

There was a surprise announcement by SEC Commissioner Mike Slive that the conference was considering experimenting with instant replay for conference games this fall. The commissioner sent Supervisor of Football Officials Bobby Gaston along with one of the football observers to watch how the Big 10 handled their instant replay procedure.

Slive said the Big 10’s instant replay system would likely not be copied by the SEC as it stands but that some &uot;tweaking&uot; of the system would be done before the SEC submits their plan to the NCAA for trial next season.

I would certainly imagine the Big 10 will make some changes to their system before next season, as well.

I am not very good at making predictions, but I do know Gaston and do know all of the SEC’s observers and I do look for the SEC to make at least a couple of the following changes to the Big 10’s instant replay plan.

One guess is that the coaches, while not being allowed to actually call for replay of an official’s call, will at least be allowed to request a review but that review will only be allowed if approved by the referee. The referee will be allowed to confer with the official who made the questioned call before calling for television review.

Thirty or 40 years ago college football officiating was full of hard-headed men whose pride would have prevented them from admitting any question of a call, but this is a different world.

I also guess any on-field official will be able to request review of any of his calls. I do think the replay official will be able to decide that a review of a call request by an official be disallowed because the replay official has seen on the television feed that the official’s call was clearly correct.

Otherwise, as in the Big 10, the replay official will originate all reviews.

It as also my thinking the SEC, unlike the Big 10, will install cameras and replay equipment at all conference stadiums which will be manned and dedicated solely to play review.

I don’t anticipate the SEC will saturate the stadiums with cameras like the NFL does, but I do think the system will be sophisticated enough to allow for split-screen viewing by the replay official so he can quickly isolate on the best view of any questioned play.

Commercial television does not provide adequate coverage for replay, and not all SEC games are televised.

I saw an article in a paper the other day which told of a high school basketball team who, while wiping out an opponent, had taunted and laughed at the other players. Knowing that all one reads is not necessarily the truth, I can’t comment on that particular game. Coaches and officials who tolerate that have no place guiding youngsters.

My opinion, and I have seen many hundreds of games, is that kind of behavior has no place in athletic contests, regardless of the sport or level of play.

And that’s official.

Al Graning is a former SEC official and former Natchez resident. Reach him at

AlanWard39157@aol.com

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