When refs go too far, the mess at Florida State, Crush's prediction

A.J. Green was flagged for excessive celebration after his go-ahead touchdown catch against LSU on Saturday. Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images Stewart Mandel's Mailbag Submit a question or an opinion to Stewart. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND Follow Stewart Mandel on Twitter

There are three things I can count on with near-weekly consistency every time I open my in-box on Monday mornings: 1) fans complaining about where their team is ranked, 2) fluffy school press releases, like "Vols Staying Positive Ahead of Key Matchup with Georgia," and 3) fans complaining about the refs.

If there's one thing I've learned from my readers over the years, it's that every close loss in football has been a direct result of incompetent referees who "screwed" them. Case in point: Washington fans were furious this week that officials didn't review Notre Dame's late-game two-point conversion. Many included a link to this super-slow-mo video, where the narrator shows how the runner was "clearly" down before reaching the goal line.

I defy any non-partisan viewer to locate the ball in that mass scrum of bodies.

For all these reasons, I generally gloss over most of your Monday morning officiating gripes. Sorry about that. However, last weekend's LSU-Georgia game provided the latest and, arguably, most egregious example of the one NCAA rule that never fails to drive me bonkers.

Apparently, many of you feel the same way.

Hi, Stewart, I'm not a fan of Georgia or LSU, but the calls for excessive celebration on both schools were ridiculous. Moments like A.J. Green's catch and the fans/team going wild afterward are the reasons I watch college football. Neither team gained an unfair advantage that warranted a penalty.
-- Andrew, Sidney, Ohio

Stewart: Have the refs gone mad? I know the NCAA is very concerned about sportsmanship (and rightfully so), but how can they stand by and watch the refs impact a game the way that they did in the Georgia/LSU final minutes?
-- Nicolas Janvier, New York City

Like so many of you, I couldn't believe the call. While I don't think you can claim (as many Georgia fans have) that the celebration flag cost the Dawgs the game (they still had ample opportunities to stop LSU), you'll never find anything "excessive" about Green's celebration, no matter how many times you watch that video. To me, one of the most riveting aspects of college football is the dramatic emotional swings. If you're going to throw a flag at someone simply for expressing perfectly understandable (and non-threatening) emotions, you might as well have these kids play the games in a hermetically sealed vacuum.

That being said, I actually feel bad for the ref in question (whose judgment was officially refuted Monday by SEC coordinator of officials, Rogers Redding), because he and his cohorts have been dealt a near-impossible task.

It's been well-chronicled that the NCAA is putting extra emphasis on sportsmanship issues, and with good reason. As we've seen repeatedly, even the slightest gesture or instance of trash-talking can escalate quickly into something more dangerous. Technically speaking, "excessive celebration" is not an actual foul; it's one of about 20 actions listed in the rulebook as "unsportsmanlike conduct" and defined as a "delayed, excessive, prolonged or choreographed act by which a player [or players] attempts to focus attention upon himself [or themselves]."

On Tuesday, I spoke with the NCAA's national coordinator of officials, David Parry, who said that refs from various conferences were sent to two "combines" this summer, in Dallas and in Greenville, S.C., where they were shown a video of 25 plays that would warrant an unsportsmanlike flag. "The basic philosophy is to not allow someone to upstage the game or taunt the opponent with their actions," he said. "That's why you usually see [officials] running as quickly possible to get to the guy who just scored to get the ball from him."

Parry, like Redding, saw nothing from the replays of Green's celebration that fell into those categories. "Unfortunately in this case, the fellow was a little too strict, and unfortunately it had a huge bearing in the game," he said.

While I commend the rules committee for taking the sportsmanship issues so seriously, I think it needs to revisit the celebration aspect. Certainly, there are clear instances of taunting -- like when a visiting player scores a touchdown, then starts gesturing at the home crowd -- that merit a flag. But when a guy makes a huge go-ahead touchdown catch with a minute left in front of 100,000 screaming people, his teammates mob him and he jumps around a little bit, that's not unsportsmanlike; that's human.

Last Saturday, a ref who's presumably had it beaten into his brain to watch out for the slightest sign of foul play was forced to make a split-second decision as to whether the giddy Green was "calling attention to himself," as the crew claimed in their postgame statement. My response: Who cares? Unless a kid is clearly taunting or showing up an opposing player or team, or tries to put on an overly elaborate show, let him have his fun. That's what this sport is supposed to be.

Stewart, now that Cal failed to score a single touchdown in two full games after opening the season with one of the highest scoring offenses, wouldn't you say this has less to do with players and more to do with coaching? Cal certainly has had a consistent stream of head-turning talent in recent years, so maybe the tendency to overrate Cal is really a matter of Tedford not really being an offensive guru?
-- Hans, Danville, Calif.

Jeff Tedford has certainly lost his reputation as a quarterback guru. After such a long string of accomplished protégés, including Kyle Boller and Aaron Rodgers at Cal, the Bears have gone three years without a formidable passing game. Kevin Riley showed signs early in the season that he'd turned the corner, but these past two weeks, with Oregon and USC loading the box and shutting down Jahvid Best, Riley has completed less than 40 percent of his passes and failed to reach the 200-yard mark either week.

Obviously, Cal's defense has been exposed as well. They got almost no pressure on either Jeremiah Masoli or Matt Barkley, who promptly tore them apart. And once those teams got significantly ahead, the Bears had no choice but to pass, thus rendering Best a non-factor. But think back to Tedford's one elite-caliber team, the 2004 squad that went 10-1 in the regular season. The combo of Rodgers and J.J. Arrington made them incredibly tough to defend. Without a dependable quarterback and/or a game-breaking receiver, like DeSean Jackson, Cal has been one-dimensional. As Best goes, so, too, do the Bears.