If you ask the general public, they will tell you that BCS doesn't do many things right. But after reviewing their postseason and comparing it with the NFL's postseason, it's obvious they do at least one thing right.
Instant replay.
I want to throw my red flag and challenge the NFL's system of reviewing plays.
No, it's not because there has been a seemingly inordinate amount of recent playoff games that have been affected by interesting judgments by the referees.
Asante Samuel's pass interference on Ashley Lelie and Peyton Manning's incomplete pass to Troy Polamalu do raise an eyebrow, but that is nothing out of the ordinary.
In the past, football games have been left with noticeable zebra fingerprints and the games in the future will continue to have that same imprint, as well.
Accept it as just part of the game.
But I'm wondering why the system to review those inevitable questionable calls has to be so arduous on the professional level?
After watching the Rose Bowl, their system appears to be somewhat ideal.
When a play is under review, it is analyzed by a group of off-field officials in a booth upstairs.
But on the pro level, why do the on-field officials have to hop under a hood to review their own decisions?
They are heavily scrutinized and incessantly criticized to begin with, now you add another straw to the camel's back by forcing an official to double-back on what one head coach deems to be a wrong ruling.
It makes more sense to have a separate crew, one who did not make the original call on the field, review the play and make an unbiased decision.
That's not to say that a ref who has made a bad call would purposely let a play stand because of an ego trip, but it is best not to give him that option.
Students don't mark their own exams and employees don't evaluate their own performances. Impartial (well, hopefully) third parties do that.
That is why an independent booth of referees, who have all the visual access required to make the proper conclusion, makes a smarter solution.
Although trepidations in regards to honesty, to this point anyways, are quite minute, the other noticeable different between the BCS replays and the NFL replays is length in time.
When the NFL first introduced video replay, most television broadcasts would have a 90-second timer on screen while the refs were checking the play. Since most replays now take much longer, usually ranging between two and five minutes, we don't see that countdown anymore.
With the Rose Bowl reviews, it seemed that by the time the referee had made it to the sideline, a decision had already been prepared in the booth upstairs. Then, all that the on-field crew had to do was relay that message back to the public.
This concept of dividing the video replay labor is faster and more efficient than what the NFL currently offers.
If you combine that idea with the NFL's version of how a challenge is initiated (coach throws the red flag or call is made from upstairs if there is two minutes or less left in the half), that would give you the ideal system.
The NFL's video replay and the BCS' video replay mix like Mondays and me.
"Have confidence that if you have done a little thing well, you can do a bigger thing well, too." — David Malcolm Storey
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