Another conference's admission of officiating error brings more scrutiny on replay, referees

Overwhelmingly, officials get most calls correct, work games for their love of football and almost always have an additional, full-time vocation.

Which probably is an element for another day, as revenues and TV deals fuel unprecedented attention and scrutiny on all aspects of the game.

With that in mind, it's been a brutal week for a pair of Football Championship Subdivision's more high-profile conferences.

Earlier this week, FootballScoop shed insight on the disastrous instant-replay process in the Southern Conference battle between rivals Furman and Samford. Multiple league coaches told FootballScoop it was the conference's first-ever public admission of wrongdoing, and additional sources said the crew was suspended indefinitely in addition to its public reprimand.

Now, the Western Athletic Conference has encountered a similar issue this week in a very similarly charged contest between rivals Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston State.

The WAC publicly acknowledged Tuesday evening that its crew in the high-profile bout between the two FCS contenders had a "misadministration of a personal foul for a hit on a defenseless player that occurred late in the contest."

Having trailed at the halftime and 16-7 in the late stages of the game, the Bearkats, in part fueled by the penalty, rallied for a 17-16 win against the Lumberjacks.

Here's video of the play in question: