wait till you do see the replay of the onside kick, I can,t imagine what the replay officials were looking at. Maybe their replays where in black and white, even still, they should be able to distinguish between green , and white. Also, in reguards to the pass interference call, I have never seen a spiral turn into a woobler, (practically end over end) on its own before. I thought replay was going to be used to get the call right. If not, maybe they should just do away with replay altogether.

Could have gone either way? He hit him when the ball was 10 yards away from the safety. That was horrible. Auburn is a hell of a team but who knows how the game SHOULD have ended.

Stewart,

After you see the replay, you'll understand immediately why everyone was so upset after the OU-Oregon game. And the onsides kick wasn't the only call other, it was one of 3 really horrible ones in the final minute, in addition to so many others all game long. You're one of the few voices of reason left in college football, hopefully at least you'll correct the injustice of that game the best you can by leaving OU above Oregon in your power rankings and ballot. Hope you're enjoying ND (although I'm sure your buddies probably aren't right now after that beating).

You've gotta treat the OU-Oregon game like OU won by 6. Maybe 9. The refs just stole the game from them on that onside kick

miami blown out by louisville, florida st loses to clemson...boston college as acc champions, anyone?

Regarding the OU-UO onside kick ... 1) the ball did not go 10 yards, which is what most people are pointing out, 2) after the lengthy review, the ref stated that the receiving team touched the ball first...what? either this was misstated or just flat out wrong, and 3) what most people -- including those showing highlights -- aren't aware of is that OU apparently recovered the kick...look at the video on the right side of the pile for the ball to come out almost immediately -- really too quick to call possession like they did -- and OU's Allen Patrick (#23) comes away with the ball and the officials are still approaching/examining the pile. NOW, after taking that long to review and they miss all of that and give it to Oregon, what kind of party was going on up in the replay booth? No doubt strippers were involved because they weren't looking at their monitors.

Oklahoma recovered the ball not Oregon. Everyone was focused on the nine-yard touch and missed that Allen Patrick (#23) recovered the ball for OU!!!! Amazing. Watch it again.

As a die-hard Nebraska fan, and resident of Los Angeles, I've been looking forward to this football game between Nebraska and USC for years... I think, personally, that it was a great game on both sides and I resent anyone who said it was 'shaping up to be blowout' or who predicted a score such as '41-7'. I think Nebraska needs work, USC is re-loading (well, I might add) but the game was about respect. Both teams GREATLY respected each other during the game (no fights, lots of praise, etc.) and the coaches could do nothing but praise each other. I saw video of Nebraska fans and USC fans tailgating together, etc. I really thought this game was about repect and it lived up to the hype. USC deserves to be number 2 or 3 in the country, and Nebraska deserves a little respect for hanging in with one of the best teams in the land.

will someone please ask the officials who recovered the ball on the onside kick in the OU / Oregon game. Nobody ever noticed that OU's player #23 recovered the ball.....Oregon never had possession of the ball. If you watch, notice teh #22 for OU was even pointing at #23. This along with the horrible call that OU touched the ball first smells alot like home cooking sense the refs were from the Pac-10!!!!

I think the winner of Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech will be the Champ. They're just too good on offense and they actually have the offense the UM and FSU don't have to support it.

On the NU-USC game, I was actually impressed by the play of Nebraska. What did them in was horrible play calling by Bill Calahan and the costly fumble by Marlon Lucky. I mean honestly how do you play not to lose when you're down 7-3 or
14-3? I just don't get it.

Someone really needs to look into that OU-Oregon game...smells really fishy. I can understand making the wrong call on a bang-bang play, but to review it and still call it incorrectly...they are either incompetent or on the take.

In the end, it's a loss for Oklahoma...I dont care how it happened. People who say to leave Oklahoma above Oregon in your rankings are foolish. Officials have been making mistakes for decades and will continue to do so. A loss is a loss. By the way, Go Blue!!!!!

I've been watching college football since 1983 and I can honestly say I've never seen a win handed to the loser like I did in OU-Oregon. This overshadows any other badly called game I've seen because multiple, obviously-incorrect called survived replay. I hate to cast the homer accusation, but these refs were influenced by the Autzen atmosphere.

It now appears obvious that Brady Quinn may be the most overrated player in all of college football. People need to wake up and realize that he is realistically as good as he is going to get (there aren't too many better offensive coaches than Weis). Hopefully we can stop with all the Heisman talk and it may be time to stop with the number 1 pick talk as well. Otherwise I see Quinns future having a lot in common with Tim Couch and Ryan Leaf as huge busts on the next level.

Great, GREAT weekend of college football. The best part, however, was waking up and seeing the sign behind Lee Corso at College Gameday that read, "Charlie Weiss is the love-child of Rosie O'Donnell and Jaba The Hut!" I'm an OSU fan, but that, was pure genious.

miami blown out by louisville, florida st loses to clemson...boston college as acc champions, anyone?

somebody forgot about VT, i guess. and what's with Georgia Tech having to pull away from Troy in the 2nd half?

re the USC-UN game, i think that game wound up alot closer than it seemed. i agree with the poster upthread who noted the respect displayed. it was nice to see two teams playing hard but not going out of their way to be rude, actually picking each other up after plays etc. much better for the sport than the shennanigans before the UL-UM game. idiot 'Canes.

overall, the day lived up to my expectations! {i'm esp happy that FSU lost}

VT Lizz

The refs from the Oklahoma game didn't even care how many people witnessed them STEAL a game, not once but TWICE from a bunch of kids!

There is nothing that can be done regarding the game, OU has to take a lost and will probably fall out of the top 25 while Oregon beat(cheated) OU for the first time.

The Texas Tech/OU phantom touch down call last year was bad but this was just pathetic.

I used to cringe at the sight of USC but I really hope that USC breaks the score board on Oregon.

Stewart, maybe you can use this as a mailbag, or just answer it here, but I have a question I'd like answered. Do you think that officiating is really so much worse this year, or is it just magnified now that we have instant replay modifications as well as challenges? I've noticed that obviously there were SEVERAL bad calls in almost every game today, and I have a feeling the referees are in for a ripping when they meet. Are they worse than usual though? If so, what could be the cause of it? Is it really home-team bias as some have stated?

Brian from Athens, OH

Boy - I saw a lot of bad football today, a lot of bad coaching, and a lot of bad officiating. I thought the Oregon affair (especially the on-side kick review) was truly atrocious. But, I also thought Oklahoma's execution in the 4th quarter was terrible. Two possessions inside the 10 in the 4th and only 6 points to show for them. A TD on either possession would have given them a 3 score advantage. And running the ball with no timeouts with 31 seconds remaining was another brain cramp. Bob Stoops should feel awful tonight.

Auburn was lucky. Nebraska coach Callahan is terrible (and more than a bit odd in my book). Miami and Florida State couldn't make an offense between them. Ron Zook is worse than terrible. Colorado is lost. Need I continue?

Will the media *please* wake up now and realize that Notre Dame was vastly overrated? It seems every time somebody on ND's team takes a crap, it's front page news and they're national title contenders again. I am so glad Michigan took it to them. Now, how about that first quarter of West Virginia vs. Maryland?-- frickin s c a r y.

Stuart,
You are the first real sportswriter nationally that has given TCU some real credit. Still awaiting ESPN to positively say anything other than "a fly in the ointment for the BCS." Yes they are fast and talented on the Defense and it showed tonight. They just conquered their 5th consecutive Big 12 opponent, you know the conference that wanted Baylor more and turned their noses up at TCU and made them work their way up to here. They need to change conferences though would you agree?

After seeing officiating like that today at the LSU-Auburn game, I had the urge to hurt small animals and children. Not only was the pass interference call abusrd, but lets not forget about the reception and fumble overturned to an incomplete pass. It sucks that when two great teams play their hearts out, it's decided by bad officiating.

When considering the onside kick in UO V. OU, keep in mind that the replay official has to find conclusive evidence to overturn a call on the field. Despite all the hysterics, I did not see an conclusive proof. The cameras were on an angle to the 10 yrd marker and the ball was about 10 feet in the air. The Oregon player was so close that no one with any honesty could conclusively say he touched it early. Why did the referee say the receiving team touched the ball first? I don't know, but I heard more than one referee stumble over his words or say something stupid today. Also even if #23 for OU did come up with the ball, the official could have blown it dead before that. It would not have been an early whistle because the player that first had possession was down on the ground. You don't let players fight over the ball until one walks away with it.

The worst robbery job ever by an official?! Please, lets not go overboard here (did anyone watch the Miami-Ohio State national championship game, or the CU-Mizzou fifth down game?). At least the refs in the OU-Oregon game can fall back on there not being conclusive evidence to overturn the supposedly bad calls. As Peter King says, conclusive proof means than 100 people is a room would all reach the same answere, and I doubt that's the case with onside kick, the tipped pass, etc. Besides, OU is no worse off than they would have been last year, when there was no replay.

The worst ever? Probably not. But the replays on both plays left little doubt that the refs got the calls wrong on the field ... and wrong on review. Would 100 people have agreed? Not if there was at least one Ducks fan on the jury ... but non-partisan observers (such as the guys calling the game on ABC and commentators on ESPN) certainly thought the refs blew it. And I agree. Horrible officiating that affected the outcome of the game.

Why do the Miami fans still cry about the officiating of the national championship with OSU? Bad calls? I didn't see any. Besides, Miami was overrated that year also just like N.D. this year.

I hope LSU, Texas, and Oklahoma are on top of the "one-loss" teams. I also hope the voters will keep in mind that Auburn and Oregon played with practically 17 players. I hope the Notre Dame hype has subsided. I hope people come to realize how difficult and competetive SEC is. LSU-Georgia-Florida-Auburn-Tennessee-Alabama... any of these teams can beat anyone on any given day.

Referees are there to mess things up. Computers are there to not see through it. Please see through the charade and do justice to "good" teams, Stewart. I know you do, I know you will.

so Notre Dame is finally exposed and experienced the kind of blow out loss that Cal experienced from the Vols. All the hype of the Irish should be vanished after today ! Cal dropped from no.9 to 22 after the terrible loss. The voters better drop Notre Dame out of top 15 tomorrow. If not, then it confirms the Notre Dame bias that exists since last season !!! and I would not be happy about it !!!

Stewart -

Why does Louisville's win over Miami tell you how far Miami has fallen? Perhaps Miami really is the 17th ranked team in the country and Louisville is just an under-rated team in an under-rated conference?

Focus on the fairy tale dude! Former walk-on QB beats Miami and now leads the Cards towards a show-down (one word or two?) with West Virginia.

Good luck recovering from a long Saturday of blogging and watching football.

Stewart, is it possible that maybe the
Louisville program has simply risen to
elite status? I don't want to single you out among your peers with similar opinions, but it is possible that yesterday's score reflected a good Louisville team and not a fallen Miami
team.

If Texas dropped from #2 to #8 after a loss to the #1 team, then Notre Dame better drop to at least #10 in the polls after a blowout loss to #11 Michigan.

Stewart,
You say Miami is fallen, which is true they are not the team they once were. But what about Louisville? What about the defense only allowing 7 points? What about a back up QB and backup RB/FB taking to Miami's "strong" defense? Give Louisville some love will you???

Any sportswriter or coach that still has ND in their top 10, or even 15, is delusional. The 'big' PSU win was vastly overblown, as the Nittany Lions lost almost everyone except the waterboy. According to the hype, they should have trounced GT, but escaped with a win. And now Michigan hands them their worse home loss in almost 5 decades. They shouldn't be ahead of anyone in the top 25 that hasn't lost, and behind most of the 1 loss teams (not Florida State).

The truth about the Oregon kick.
http://www.newsok.com/video/39145
Oregon never had the ball, so the illegal touch was meaningless. Oklahoma recovered the kick - and that is not a debatable point.

Yes OU's defense has been disappointing. What is even more disappointing are sportswriters like yourself. Everyone has agreed that the officials just blew the game. YET, when the writers have a chance to right the wrongs via their AP votes. They chose not to. Instead an OU team dropped 5 spots in a game that was taken from them while Oregon was given the benefit of rising 6 spots. Huh. The game might officially be a loss due to no avenue for games being overturned. But you the sportswriters have the power through your vote. A bad call early in a game can be rectified by the natural flow of a game. 2 calls in the last 40 seconds are not. The incorrectness of the calls are not even at dispute