NGW Repost: 9/24/21 SEC Officiating Transcripts from 2021 PSU/Auburn Game

11/21/2023——Editor’s Note: On September 24, 2021 NGW Published this post exposing official transcripts from a strangely officiated game between Penn State and Auburn. Here is a re-post of that explosive blog post:

While every other media outlet was asleep at the switch, the investigative journalists at Nittany Game Week were busy working contacts in industry, at the Big Ten and SEC offices and at the highest levels of the federal government.

Thanks to our efforts we’ve uncovered secret transcripts of communications between the SEC officiating crew on last Saturday night’s game between Auburn and Penn State. What is revealed in those transcripts is shocking and threatens the very foundation of officiating crews everywhere, and some would say threatens our national security.

Normally these communications are not recorded, but Chinese government officials recorded these communications mistakenly believing the SEC officials they were surveilling were from the SEC—the Securities and Exchange Commission. GOP Senators acquired the transcript hoping that Hunter Biden was involved in some way.

In an agreement with our source we’ve agreed to redact the names of the officials

Here is what we’ve found.

Early in the first quarter an obvious holding call was missed when a Penn State offensive lineman grabbed an Auburn player. The officials had a quick conversation.

Referee: “Did you see that holding call there? I almost threw the flag.”

Umpire: “Oh he held him, no question about it. But don’t call it.”

Referee: “Why not?”

Umpire: “Just don’t call holding 0n anyone. College games are starting to take well over 3 1/2 hours and we have to keep them moving. In fact while I’m thinking of it tell the Back Judge not to call pass interference while we’re at it. Just keep this thing moving.”

After analysis by independent experts, it has been determined that a number of close and not-so-close calls holding and interference calls were ignored. It would appear from that conversation that there was a willful and intentional effort to do just that.

But that is just the surface of what was uncovered in these transcripts. Perhaps the most egregious failing came in the first half. Penn State was flagged for a questionable intentional grounding call on first down. It set up what should have been second down. After second down the chains were set for forth down, essentially forcing Penn State to punt on third down.

The communications uncovered those conversations.

The Back Judge (to the Referee): “I think it’s only third down?”

Referee: “Is it? That intentional grounding penalty carries a loss of down. So the incomplete pass made it second down. The loss of down made it third down and that last play made it fourth down.”

Umpire: “The loss of down made it second down.”

Referee: “I’m not sure that’s right.”

Umpire: “Let’s check with the guy upstairs.”

Referee buzzes the replay official: “Hey what down is it?”

Replay Official: “4th down, that’s what you have on the sticks down there.”

Referee: “We’re not sure. What do you have?”

Replay Official: “I’m not sure, I wasn’t watching.”

Referee: “You weren’t watching?”

Replay Official: “No I was watching this student section and all this white out stuff. You should see the view from up here. It is really cool.”

Referee: “You should see it from down here….wait…hold on. What down is it?”

Replay Official: “How should I know?”

Referee: “Can’t you rewind it and count the downs?”

Replay Official: “I wish I could. But we set this system up wirelessly and the wireless and WiFi here sucks.”

Umpire: “How can that be? This is 2021 right?”

Replay Official” “You would think.”

Referee: “Didn’t they bring in a bunch of COWs to handle this?”

Replay Official: “No they moved all the cows out so that they could park cars in the pastures. I damn near stepped in a pile of cow manure when I got out of my car. And now I’m dealing with this BullS***. Wait…what do cows have to do with this? Is this one of those green new deal cows create methane things? Does methane help with cell signals?”

Referee: “Not bovines you idiot. COW stands for Cellular on Wheels and they create temporary cellular centers….but enough of that.”

Back Judge joins the Conversation: “Are y’all talking about cows? Y’all have to try that ice cream at the creamery. It is damn good.”

Replay Official: “Is he talking about that ice cream?”

Referee: “Can we just focus here? This is starting to sound like that mound visit scene in Bull Durham. If any of you ask for the head of a live chicken I am out of here. So let me get this straight, we have no replay up there?”

Replay Official: “That’s right. They’re trying to hard wire us at halftime.”

Referee: “Okay I guess we’ll stick with the fourth down. People already think that Alabama ranks last in education so we can’t go admit we can’t count to four.”

Umpire: “Alabama’s not last in education?”

Referee: “No. But another SEC state does hold that honor. Okay make it fourth down.”

While that exchange shows no real ill-intent, what emerges later in the game shows something very different. A targeting call was made on an Auburn player leading to an ejection from the game triggering an automatic review. That is when the referee and the replay official began their discussion.

Referee: “What do you see up there?”

Replay Official: “It’s close…..it’s really close.”

Referee: “Look, none of us like these targeting calls. It is by far the hardest rule to call.”

Replay Official: “No doubt but this is not a football rule.”

Referee: “What do you mean?”

Replay Official: “I can explain but it will take a minute.”

Referee: “That’s okay. The longer you talk, the more TV airtime I get. After that 4th-down call in the first half I was trending at halftime. My agent says if I keep this up, I’ll be trending all weekend and could end up with some NIL deals of my own.”

Replay Official: “An NIL deal? Who is your agent talking to?”

Referee: “Southwest airlines already called because they want to revive that “Wanna Get Away?” ad campaign.”

Replay Official: “It’s close. Let me consult the targeting lawyer at NCAA headquarters.”

Referee: “You’re consulting a lawyer?”

Replay Official: “Who did you think put the targeting rule in place? Sure we want to protect the players…blah, blah blah. But when concussion lawsuits started, the NCAA made the rule and we’re supposed to eject people in almost every game.”

Referee: “Why is that?”

Replay Official: “So they can show in court that they are protecting the players with loads of data showing ejections and enforcement. Wait, the lawyer just texted me and said we are running behind ejection quotas today. This guy is out. She also said the late Pac 12 games will have to help reach the ejection quota too.”

Later in the game with Auburn threatening and facing a fourth and goal with a chance to tie the game, the Tigers called a timeout. The officials convened with the referee explaining how the rest of the game would be called.

Referee: “Look on this next play, if they are dumb enough to throw the ball, there is no pass interference unless it is so obvious that we have to call it. After some of the errors we’ve made, we may not get out of this White Out alive.”

Umpire: “Didn’t y’all get the disguises and phony i.d. to get out of here?”

Back Judge: “Yeah, when I flew into Pittsburgh our northern contact gave us i.d. and thick eighties mustaches to wear. And remember we do not say Y’all?”

Umpire: “How do we refer to a plural group of people?”

Back Judge: “Yinz”

Referee: “Yinz? What the hell does that mean?”

Umpire: “Hell if I know. Just go with it.”

On the next play Auburn threw the ball and despite some contact no flags were thrown. But in the analysis of the independent experts, it appears to have been the correct call.

The controversial officiating created a firestorm that reached well beyond the sports world.

Trump lawyer Rudy Guliani has scheduled another press conference in Philadelphia, not realizing that Auburn had played Penn State and not the Penn Quakers. He even scheduled the press conference at Penn’s Franklin Field because the Trump legal team believed that the name Franklin was in some way related to Penn State’s head coach.

Pennsylvania GOP state legislators are so concerned with what has been uncovered that they’ve even considered putting their 35th failed audit of the 2020 election on hold to review the transcripts and game tapes.

Meanwhile Democrats are countering that the officiating errors are part of a conspiracy to punish Penn State’s “woke” political positions eliminating the male-centric terms “Freshmen, Sophomore, Junior and Senior” as well as other leanings deemed to be too liberal by the conservative media.

These transcripts may be just the tip of the iceberg, an iceberg believed to be rapidly melting because of the climate change created by mass migration of football fans using carbon producing vehicles.

Nittany Game Week will keep you posted as new details emerge.