SEC permanently suspends Ken Williamson

[Cruloc]

I honestly wonder if Williamson is well.

He's been a solid Zebra for decades; that game was a true departure from his form.

I think this is a case of things just got away from him and he couldn't reel it back in. Mistakes were compounding on top of mistakes.

 

[BamaFan6462]

Seeing the SEC make a move like this makes me believe someone on that crew got caught betting.

 

[bamaga]

Probably makes Ohio State fans happy, albeit 6 years too late.

 

[OconeeTide]

Us at Tennessee 2022 with the Autrey crew.....that one should have gotten that crew suspended 100 times over.

They should of been criminally investigated for fixing a game for betting purposes...
It went FAR beyond poor officiating when they tried to give Tenn TWO 5th downs, one time successfully.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Anyone seen this on a reputable site? I've only seen it on YHN and Twitter.

That's why I wasn't willing to post it.

I didn't want to fall victim to a clever satire (and yes, I have).

 

[4Q Basket Case]

It's been confirmed by Terry McAulay. His credentials:

I also think if it wasn’t true then the SEC Office or Head of SEC Officiating would have released a statement of denial.

There has been ample time since this story came out to do so.

IMO they are basically “confirming it” by their silence.

I checked this morning, and several other outlets are picking up the story. Still a deafening silence from the SEC Office.

In addition to publishing the disciplinary actions, McAulay is also ripping the decision saying it was unfair and decrying the barn AD's involvement and influence over the SEC office.

Also says that there were 11 complaints filed, and 9 were "confirmed." I'm not sure whether that means review showed that Williamson's crew did the right thing on 9 and missed on 2, or missed on 9 and were right on 2.

 

[BamaHoopsBoi]

Hugh really is trying his best to hold on to that Auburn job.

I've never seen this happen in my lifetime. I'm guessing Ken has a terrible track record?

 

[BamaMoon]

I'll be honest. I DON'T like this. Penalize him, suspend him for a few games or even the rest of the season, but permanently???

I really don't care how bad the mistakes might have been. But it's not like he murdered someone.

And, the alleged "fumble" is in no way "clear." It was called a fumble on the field. As the rules state, "there was no clear evidence to overturn the original call."

Did they "fumble" the Kirby TO incident? Yeah, probably, but, again is this worthy of a lifetime suspension???

Auburn remains convinced they are getting hosed in these games, but there are so many instances of them playing like 8th graders in these games too. All teams get bad breaks. The good teams that play on despite them often still manage to win. AU is not a good team.

 

[December05]

Report: SEC permanently suspends Ken Williamson after review of Auburn-Georgia officiating

Wow!

...and Jason Autrey continues under the radar...

No mention of the repaly officials in Birmingham that ultimately made the call on that goal line play!

I’m among the biggest haters of Autrey’s crew. Beyond UT in ‘22, they did everything short of calling back the game-winning catch to take the ‘23 Iron Bowl from us in addition to things they’ve done in other non-Bama games that have similarly stirred games unjustly.

I purposefully turned off the Mizzou game when I saw him and listened on the radio to keep from getting too “visually invested” in any BS. However, I went back and re-watched it after the result and found them to call a fairly clean, accurate game. They had their chances to screw us and didn’t.

It makes me think that most of these crews are at least competent, but some of them are just “for hire” if a school opts to go that route and has the connection to them regardless of their affiliation. That may lean a little into conspiracy, but it’s certainly plausible.

I’d also submit that Auburn may be getting concentrated flack from the league this season because of Freeze. If he is not liked because of his history in the league, who’s to say the league office isn’t having influence over games to get him removed? Firing Williamson goes against that argument, but doesn’t fully refute it either.

Final note: The obliviousness of Auburn not acknowledging how much of the “Jordan Hare Voodoo” has been striped over the years relative to their sudden need to march on Capitol Hill now is a nice little joke.

 

[rolltide_21]

Seeing the SEC make a move like this makes me believe someone on that crew got caught betting.

Yep. As many terrible calls we’ve seen over this years this swift action really makes no sense for just bad calls alone. Something else has to be in play here.

 

[crimsonaudio]

I checked this morning, and several other outlets are picking up the story. Still a deafening silence from the SEC Office.

In addition to publishing the disciplinary actions, McAulay is also ripping the decision saying it was unfair and decrying the barn AD's involvement and influence over the SEC office.

Also says that there were 11 complaints filed, and 9 were "confirmed." I'm not sure whether that means review showed that Williamson's crew did the right thing on 9 and missed on 2, or missed on 9 and were right on 2.

Auburn is championing this but it appears UGA was the recipient of two bad calls which caused two TDs to be erased.

IOW, I suspect both schools filed official complaints.

 

[Cruloc]

Yep. As many terrible calls we’ve seen over this years this swift action really makes no sense for just bad calls alone. Something else has to be in play here.

This action by the SEC does seem far beyond what most would have expected. Maybe they are trying to set an example here and this crew being at the forefront this time, makes them the scapegoat.

The entirety of college football officiating needs to be overhauled, but this permanent suspension makes me wonder if crews will be afraid to do anything.


Side Note:
Officiating as a whole is in trouble anyway (from youth sports to high school), no new young people want to go into the job and the old experienced officials are retiring. I've got a friend of mine, early 50's, that's been a youth and high school ref for over a decade now, there's a shortage. He knows I've got the background to potentially get into officiating and I've told him I've seen enough coaching youth baseball to know I'm never officiating.

The Real Cause of Losing Sports Officials

Authors: Matthew J Williams D.S.M., M.B.A. M.S. Department of Education, The University of Virginia’s College at Wise, Wise, VA, USA Corresponding Author: Dr. Matthew WilliamsThe University of Virginia’s College at Wise2001 Greenbriar DriveBristol, VA 24202 Matthew J. Williams...

thesportjournal.org

This is cuts both ways for me. On one hand, you never seem to have accountability on the refs or officials. On the other hand we've allowed parents, coaches, etc to treat officials like they are subhuman. Both sides need to be fixed.

 

[CrimsonJazz]

Suspend, fire, I don't care; just don't replace him with a female official. She'll be throwing flags on stuff that happened 3 years ago.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

Auburn is championing this but it appears UGA was the recipient of two bad calls which caused two TDs to be erased.

IOW, I suspect both schools filed official complaints.

The whole issue is complicated, with lots of potential for unintended consequences.

We do need transparency in the evaluation of officials. And goodness knows they need to be better. As I've stated many times, I cut the on-filed guys some slack due to the speed of today's game. It's the centralized review missing so many calls that just boggles my mind.

But refs also need to be protected in some way from irrational fans and bullying coaches. Doxxing and harassment of families wouldn't be a surprise.

One unintended consequence of this could be on-field refs punting the close calls as often as possible to someone else in the central office. IOW, more interruptions of the flow of the game because of an increased number of reviews in the central office. But maybe not. Because......

With very few exceptions (targeting, illegal participation and a few others), centralized review can't originate the call. They have to assess whether there is indisputable evidence that the on-field call was wrong. So if the on-field ref doesn't make any call at all, there is nothing to review.

Yeah, I know....conflicting possibilities. It's going to be really hard to predict the fallout here.

 

[CB4]

WJOX in Birmingham is saying they “will not discuss this” until they have it corroborated and reported by sources other than Yellowhammer News. It isn’t a situation of saying “it isn’t true”. It is Pat Smith and WJOX saying they want further validation of the story.

But if this ISN’T true, why hasn’t the SEC office come out and “shot it down”? I mean the reputation and credibility of the conference is on the line if you allow something that is categorically untrue to continue to circulate, right?

 

[JDCrimson]

Its true, I heard it last week.

But permanently suspended likely means a settlement was reached and he can move to another conference. But he taking the fall for a line judge who didnt make the right call in both instances.

It way past time to have professional referees. Way too much gambling involved. Im honestly surprised a ref hasn't been assaulted yet that we know of.

 

[KrAzY3]

I said in particular as it pertained to that Smart timeout, that someone should be punished. You can't do that and someone had to be held accountable.

This was such drastic action though that it makes me wonder if there's more to the story.

 

[colbysullivan]

I'll be honest. I DON'T like this. Penalize him, suspend him for a few games or even the rest of the season, but permanently???

I really don't care how bad the mistakes might have been. But it's not like he murdered someone.

And, the alleged "fumble" is in no way "clear." It was called a fumble on the field. As the rules state, "there was no clear evidence to overturn the original call."

Did they "fumble" the Kirby TO incident? Yeah, probably, but, again is this worthy of a lifetime suspension???

Auburn remains convinced they are getting hosed in these games, but there are so many instances of them playing like 8th graders in these games too. All teams get bad breaks. The good teams that play on despite them often still manage to win. AU is not a good team.

Williamson should have lost his job the day he gave the Barn a free field goal with no time remaining in the 1st half. Yes, this actually happened in 2019…a game that we lost by 3 points…a game that kept us out of the playoffs. In case you can’t tell, I don’t have any sympathy for him. Jason Autry should be next for keeping us out of the playoffs in 2022.

 

[jthomas666]

Its true, I heard it last week.

But permanently suspended likely means a settlement was reached and he can move to another conference. But he taking the fall for a line judge who didnt make the right call in both instances.

It way past time to have professional referees. Way too much gambling involved. Im honestly surprised a ref hasn't been assaulted yet that we know of.

Did the on-field officials really err on the fumble/scoop&score? In those situations, they're trained to let the play proceed, and sort it out afterwards. It seems to me that if any mistake was made on that play (I have no opinion either way), it was by the replay booth.

 

[Bubbaloo]

Don't get CATFISHED fellows....this has gone on for 2 days and no solid reliable source is reporting this! Let the Barners take this bait