Winning out seems to be the only hope they’ll have at the playoff.
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“After a thorough review and evaluation of the entire Central Michigan at Oklahoma State contest, we have made a decision to suspend the officiating crew for the next two consecutive weeks”, said Bill Carollo, the coordinator of football officials for the Collegiate Officiating Consortium.
Central Michigan University’s 30-27 win Saturday will cost Oklahoma State its No. 22 ranking.
Maybe that’s why OSU coach Mike Gundy acted aggressively Sunday, issuing a statement created to guide the narrative at Monday’s media luncheon involving players and coaches, although that may prove hard to control.
Gundy took full responsibility for the loss, but also shared his displeasure with the ruling on the field.
Not since Colorado’s conversion on fifth-and-goal has college football officiating suffered a breakdown so vexing as the one that yielded Central Michigan’s stunner in Stillwater. Then it’s on the replay booth upstairs to get it right. “Even if they did catch it we’re supposed to secure the tackle”.
A portion of Gundy’s argument centered on having only Big 12 officials work Oklahoma State home games moving forward.
The Cowboys were given a penalty for intentional grounding and the referees gave CMU an untimed down. Naturally, the coach was still fielding questions about it on the Big 12 weekly teleconference, even as his Cowboys have begun preparations for another challenging contest against 2-0 Pittsburgh. While I’m disappointed in myself, I am also disappointed that we had 10 rules officials who didn’t properly apply the rule. Unfortunately, it was a play that should have never happened because the rules weren’t followed.
The Cowboys don’t have time to mope.
The 39-point win is the largest margin of victory over Iowa State by Iowa (2-0) under head coach Kirk Ferentz and tied for the third-largest win margin all-time in the rivalry. “We would have never had a play in our playbook that’s going to give them another play”, Gundy said.
Repercussions came down Sunday.
The Big 12 and Mid-American conferences suspended the on-field and replay officials who worked Saturday’s Oklahoma State-Central Michigan game that ended in controversy in Stillwater, Okla.
No. 10 Louisville cracked the Top 10 for the first time since October 2013.
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said it was “unfathomable” that a replay crew didn’t intervene. “They’re mad. They’re upset”.
“We abandoned it early and it all got reduced”, Gundy said of the ball distribution Saturday. Last season, they played at Michigan State and at Syracuse; in 2014, they played three such teams, Syracuse, Kansas and Purdue, and beat the Boilermakers in West Lafayette, Ind.
The ending at Oklahoma State made for a rough day and a rough first two weeks for the Big 12. And the Big 12 has not distinguished itself, going 5-7 against FBS competition to start 2016.
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“We are just trying to bounce back”, Oklahoma State cornerback Ashton Lampkin said. “I think we thought that a year ago (a 24-13 home loss to the Coweboys) we had a chance, we were there and we thought we let one slip away and I think it just shows how we’ve progressed that we were able to go down to their place, a hostile environment, and come away with the win”. “We had a play, we executed, end of story”. We’ve got to go out there and do it. “We don’t have to re-structure what we do and who we are, we’ve got to continue to get better at it”.
