MAC Releases Statement Acknowledging Officiating Mistake, Says Call and Game Stand

Bill Carollo apparently decides the final outcome of the OSU-Central Michigan. Who is Bill Carollo? I’m glad you asked. Bill Carollo is the Coordinator of Football Officials for the Collegiate Officiating Consortium – Football (COC) that includes the Big Ten, Mid-American and Missouri Valley Football conferences.

“The Mid-American Conference officiating crew from Saturday afternoon’s Central Michigan at Oklahoma State contest made an error on the final play of regulation,” said Carollo. The crew made a misapplication of the rule and should not have extended the contest with one final play. Despite the error, this will not change the outcome of the contest.”

So there you go. That’s the end (probably). The MAC was in charge of the officials who officiated the event. The officials who admitted their mistake after the game. And the MAC, which is the conference Central Michigan is in, says that’s the end of it.

I don’t really think MAC officials were trying to sneak Central Michigan a win (that would be an insane conspiracy), but just for future reference and for the sake of the integrity of the sport, maybe we should not have non-conference games officiated by officials from one of the two conferences.

It would be unprecedented if this thing were to eventually get overturned, and to be honest, I don’t even know who would overturn it. The NCAA? The Big 12? The House of Representatives? A loss to a MAC team always stings, but this one will hurt for a long, long time.