Sun Belt admits "incorrect application of replay" in botched Arkansas State-Central Arkansas call

The Sun Belt on Tuesday released a statement acknowledging its replay process incorrectly awarded a game-clinching touchdown catch to Arkansas State on what clearly should have been an incomplete pass.

Trailing Central Arkansas 31-27, A-State snapped from the 7-yard line when Jaylen Raynor threw to Corey Rucker in the corner of UCA's end zone in what was ruled on the field an incomplete pass. As you'll see below, the official ruled the pass incomplete because it was incomplete.

However, the TV copy does not show Rucker bobble, and ultimately lose possession of, the football. He goes to the ground with the ball, then stands with the ball, as the bobble occurs out of frame.

As the Sun Belt's statement says, the replay official was focused entirely on whether Rucker had a foot inbounds, and possession of the ball while that foot was inbounds, and did not look to see whether he actually caught the ball.

The Sun Belt Conference, upon review of the complete pass call with 3 seconds remaining in the Central Arkansas at Arkansas State football game, has announced an incorrect application of the replay review process.

The replay official was focused on the firm control and body part down aspects of the act of a catch and failed to evaluate the surviving the ground aspect of a catch during the review of the play in question.

The right end zone camera shows the receiver did not survive the ground, but this camera angle was not consulted by the replay official. The replay ruling should have confirmed the on-field call of an incomplete pass. 

The Sun Belt's statement places the failure on the unnamed replay official -- "failed to evaluate," "was not consulted" -- rather than a process error.

However, the process failure began before the ball was in the air.

Richard Johnson of CBS Sports tweeted that a Sun Belt spokesman told him “the spirit of the rule is that if a play goes to instant replay, the video review and replay ruling will be used to make the final call."

In other words, instead of using instant replay to supplement the call on the field, the Sun Belt (using the SEC's offices in Birmingham) used replay to supersede the call on the field. Final authority was given to a faceless official hundreds of miles away, and thus taken away from an actual official standing six feet from a football clearly and plainly lying on the turf.

The other process failure was that, according to Central Arkansas head coach Nathan Brown, it took Birmingham eight minutes and 36 seconds to botch the call. (Sun Belt officials reached out to UCA on Monday.)

"You just wish and hope the nature and the reasoning for a replay is to get it without a shadow of a doubt," Brown said. "No reason why it's not a correct call is the whole point of having a replay. I thought the longer it went the better off for the Bears because if you're dissecting a play for what was essentially eight minutes and 36 seconds -- we counted -- of review time, that's a lot of time to try and figure out if it was a catch. That was the part that in the end was like a little bit frustrating." 

Arkansas State still would have had one more play from the 7-yard line to throw into the end zone, so no one can say for certain the call cost Central Arkansas the game. (UCA's win probability peaked at 99.1 percent with 31 seconds left but dropped to 55.8 percent when A-State reached the 7, per ESPN's numbers.)

Still, the episode is another infuriating example of the fundamental flaw of the implementation of instant replay in sports, particularly college football. No human-built system is ever going to be perfect, but the fruitless pursuit of perfection has led to the complete abandonment of common sense. In deferring to the supposed all-knowing Eye in the Sky, the Sun Belt was blind to the Two Eyes Staring Right At the Football on the Ground.