Part of the problem with this is that the athletic department insist on having as many people on the sideline as they could to sell the support appearance. When you bring all the redshirts, reserves, special teams like practice offenses and defenses and past players and place them on the limited sidelines while they are mixing with the actual players that move on and off the field, that’s a lot of people right there. A team can dress 55 players and have up to 85 on the active roster. With the addition of athletic staff to record the games, sideline officials for the sticks, coaches, wiring, television cameras and reporter staff, and all the others that were there by invite or working, that amounts to a lot of people in a limited space. It was crowded. For all we know he may have been knocked forward but it didn’t recognize to him. He was wrong, but it is a shared blame. I’ve officiated NCAA and National Federation and it happens more than people know. And when a number of people cross into that zone to complain about a call or congradulate a player, warranted or not, it can get crowded. The officials associations I worked with don’t want to call that but it was on national television and it did deviate the side judge’s path cutting his ability to keep up with the play.
wy69
“ When you bring all the redshirts, reserves, special teams like practice offenses and defenses and past players and place them on the limited sidelines “…Hollywood stars.
Solid post, whitney.