Before I begin my rant, let me say that I have no clue whether the officiating crew for last night's game was an SEC crew, though I would assume they were.
Anyhow, I was pretty disappointed with the way SEC officials handled replay situations last year, and this year hasn't started off right, as far as I'm concerned.
1.) Why wasn't the safety reviewed? From my vantage point, it looked like the football broke the plane of the goal line, which is all it has to do to avoid a safety. I haven't watched a replay, so I have no idea if that was the case, but it was at least close enough for a review.
3.) Poole's dive for the pylon in the fourth quarter...again, from my vantage point, that looked like a clear touchdown. And on the jumbotron replay, it appeared to be a touchdown, too. But, again, I haven't watched the replay so I may be totally wrong. The officials DID automatically review that one. I just felt like they got it wrong.
It was an SEC crew
1) I believe that the entire ball has to be on the field of play, i.e. if any part of the ball is on the goalline it is a safety (Approved Ruling 8-5-1
I. A10, after receiving the snap in his own end zone, is downed with
the ball resting on his goal line, its forward point being in the field of
play. RULING: Safety. A part of the dead ball is on the ball carrier’s
goal line.)
3) I thought real time he was OB and the in stadium replay seemed to bear that out. I thought it a good call.