'We Don't Comment on Judgement Calls': Sankey Defends Alabama-Georgia Officiating

"There are going to be tough calls that happen."

Greg Sankey

MOUNTAIN BROOK, Ala. — In one of the biggest matchups of the year, the refs stole the spotlight.

That's never a good thing.

No. 1 Georgia's 20-17 win over No. 6 Alabama last Saturday was marred with controversial calls, rather, no-calls, that the Crimson Tide ended up on the wrong side of. Speaking at SEC Tipoff, the conference's basketball media day, commissioner Greg Sankey came to the defense of official Kyle Olson's crew.

"There's a lot of respect for the work that officials do, but there are going to be tough calls that happen, and we want to get everyone right, and I mean that literally," Sankey said. "But it's a dynamic game with 22 players, looking quickly and instantaneous decisions, not all of which are subject to replay."

The two moments that have stood out both came in the fourth quarter. First, with 11 minutes to play, Keelon Russell attempted to connect with Ryan Coleman-Williams on a slant, which was broken up by cornerback Demello Jones. As the play unfolded, safety KJ Bolden dove head-first at Coleman-Williams, making helmet-to-helmet contact that knocked the receiver out of the game.

Was it targeting? The penalty has been called for less many times. The ire came from the fact that there wasn't even a review for the penalty, which has become the norm for just about every close call.

The play that has generated national buzz came seven minutes later, when Rico Scott was clearly hit early by Bolden on a second-down end zone shot. No flag was thrown, Russell was sacked on third down, and Alabama never got the ball back.

The targeting was subjective, but this pass interference was as clear-cut as it gets. It's a no-call on par with that of the infamous 2018 NFC Championship Game, not in terms of scale, but with regard to how textbook an interference it was. A penalty would have moved Alabama into range for Conor Talty to tie the game, provided the offense didn't find the end zone, but DeBoer, Ryan Grubb, and multiple players made it clear that one call does not dictate a game.

"We can't put the game in that situation where the officials come into play," DeBoer said on Saturday. "We just have to control the things that we can control."

Still, it's hard to oversell the significance of the moment. Bolden himself admitted the flag should have been thrown.

"I'm not gonna lie. I would want them to call pass interference," Bolden said at Georgia's media availability this week.

The SEC did not release a statement about the officiating in the aftermath of the game.

"We don't comment on judgment calls," Sankey said. "We have a high expectation of performance for everyone, myself, staff, officials. Officials dedicate a great deal of time to preparation in those bang-bang moments. There are disagreements. You saw us comment earlier on an error in the application (a reference to September's Texas vs. Tennessee game). Those are the standards. Sometimes we explain some context around why a particular decision was made, but judgment calls, when they happen, there's a lot of emotion and intensity around our games and officiating every week."

Referees are a very easy punching bag, and are always going to be subject to criticism that often is not fully warranted. This was. There was plenty more from this game that could be dissected, from uncalled holding penalties on both sides, to a timekeeping error late in the first half, to a near-interception from Alabama linebacker QB Reese that was ruled an incompletion — that's all typical for any football game.

The fourth quarter of the game and the calls that weren't made were not typical. It is Sankey's responsibility to defend his officials, but he's not earning goodwill with anyone by doing it.

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