good article, different perspective
http://www.toledoblade.com/DaveHackenberg/2011/09/28/Missed-call-has-silver-lining-for-UT.html
The Great Extra Point Debate is over. Syracuse wins. Toledo loses. The NCAA football rule book says so.
UT athletic director Mike O'Brien admits he knew the rule existed on Sunday when he publicly petitioned for a change of heart, not to mention a change in Saturday's final score. Considering it is Rule 1, Section 1, Article 3, Paragraph B, he didn't have to go very deep into the book to find it.
Anyway, it says when the referee declares the game is over, the game is over and the score is immortal. I'm not sure this particular Big East Conference officiating crew merits having such power, but so be it.
"After review, the call on the field is confirmed."
Oh, really? The call where Syracuse's wide-left extra point, a dying, hooking quail that might have come off the toe of Gumby, who I'm not sure actually had feet, is ruled to have split the uprights? That call?
So Syracuse 33, Toledo 30, in overtime stands.
Toledo's AD, who would have preferred UT 30-29 in regulation, accomplished nothing.
Ah, wrong kemosabe.
The Rockets got more attention for losing than they would have for winning. Millions of Americans who couldn't find Toledo on a map and may not have realized Syracuse plays fall sports now know the Rockets were jobbed. After all, the Big East admitted it. Folks from Bar Harbor, Maine to Coos Bay, Ore., could not care less about Rule 1, Section 1, Article 3, Paragraph B. They know what they know.
(By the way, while O'Brien concedes he was aware of the rule, he said he also knew the Pac 12 changed the score of the Sept. 10 game between Utah and Southern Cal several hours after it ended. The circumstance was different, for sure. But it happened. You can look it up. The Las Vegas bookies did.)
Toledo was all over the crawl on ESPN network screens, in three parts over 48 hours -- the Big East admitting the error, Toledo demanding a recount, and the Mid-American Conference commissioner regretfully announcing the rule precluded any change in the outcome.
The national writers chimed in too. Andrea Adelson, who blogs on the Big East for espn.com, said this about Syracuse in her weekly league power rankings: "The Orange are a pretty weak 3-1 team. They should be a 2-2 team after officials blew a call against Toledo, awarding [Syracuse] an extra point that clearly went wide."
And we cherry-pick these highlights from Stewart Mandel on SI.com: "In the long history of controversial officiating errors, I can't remember a crew botching a crucial extra point call. Either it went in or it didn't. How do you mess that up? Well, the officials at Saturday's Toledo-Syracuse game did … both the refs on the field and in the replay booth missed what anyone watching at home could have seen … Make no mistake, Toledo. You got robbed."
O'Brien agrees. But his real motive was to support coach Tim Beckman and, especially, UT's players through a tough stretch capped by an injustice. If he didn't, who would? Still, he acknowledges the national attention is a bonus.
"The story definitely received more traction as the week went on," O'Brien said yesterday. "But we're not any happier than we were late Saturday. We clearly would have preferred to win the game. However, Toledo being in the national spotlight is not all bad."
And there's the moral to the story.
When the news stinks, use the news cycle to whatever advantage you can.
When you're dealt lemons, squeeze some lemonade.
Sunday's UT press conference, with mostly frustration boiling over, may have seemed silly at the time. Wrong, kemosabe.
