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The Washington-Oregon State controversy highlights the importance of replay in all sports.
February 26, 2016Wednesday night’s game between Oregon State and Washington ended with a buzzer-beater three and a dog pile on top of the hero, Stephen Thompson Jr.
The game’s thrilling finish was marred by a clock malfunction that apparently afforded the Beavers extra time to get a shot off. It appears as though once the ball was inbounded to Thompson Jr. on the final play, the clock failed to start for somewhere between a half second and full second. This game was an extremely consequential one for both teams, who are right on the bubble and fighting for their tournament lives.
Unfortunatley for Washington, it wasn’t an early-season loss that the Huskies can brush off; their season’s fate and their coach’s job are hanging in the balance. Understandably, head coach Lorenzo Romar has notified the Pac-12 that the school is protesting the game.
It’s unlikely that the conference will overturn the result. It would be unprecedented for that to happen. Oftentimes when teams run into these scenarios, all that happens is the league or conference office will formally recognize that a mistake was made.
In the most extreme case, the NFL brought the officials back from a lockout after the Seattle Seahawks won on the infamous “Fail Mary” play in 2012.
But when games are botched by the refs, they often have big consequences for the teams that end up on the losing end.
In 2012, the Green Bay Packers lost the game to Seattle, their playoff seeding was impacted and they ended up losing on the road to San Francisco in the playoffs, when they would have played them at home had they beaten the Seahawks.
In 2006, when Oklahoma lost to Oregon on a botched call by the referees on an onside kick in the waning moments of the game, it cost Oklahoma a shot to finish in the top 10. While the referees ended up getting suspended, the Sooners didn’t get what they most wanted: a victory.
These types of plays highlight the importance of instant replay. If the quality of replay review implemented by referees doesn’t improve we will unfortunately continue to see games with post-season implications end in controversy.