Greg Sankey didn’t spend his latest comments worrying about the officiating itself. He went after the people talking about it.
In the aftermath of the Week 10 matchup between Texas and Missouri - a game that carried major College Football Playoff implications for both programs - the conversation quickly shifted away from Arch Manning’s huge performance and even away from Steve Sarkisian’s odd postgame remarks. The flashpoint was an officiating decision involving an incomplete pass that was ruled a fumble, a call that kept a Texas possession alive late in the third quarter.
By the time SEC commissioner Greg Sankey addressed the topic days later, he made clear he was not interested in feeding the outrage cycle around the call. Instead, he aimed his frustration at critics in the broadcast booth.
“We all want to attain perfection… our officiating program does really, really good work. Our officials do really, really good work,” Sankey said.
“I am highly disappointed in announcers and their criticism… we have officiating experts… who are just flat wrong. And what that creates is a narrative that we’ve done something wrong.
That is unacceptable to me.”
He didn’t stop there.
“Some of the worst 'officials' in America are those in the announce booth.”
“I am highly disappointed in the announcers.”
Greg Sankey vehemently defends the SEC's officiating and details planned improvements: pic.twitter.com/eFCIQgWKzp
Sankey said he understands perfection is unrealistic, and he acknowledged the conference is discussing ways to open up its review process a bit more. But he drew a hard line at criticism he believes comes from people who don’t know the full story.
“Somebody on a Saturday night, who’s announcing the game between Oklahoma and Florida, going back to something that happened at noon that he never called and asked a question about, and being critical, is unacceptable,” Sankey said. “We’ll take the responsibility… work to continually improve… [and] provide more transparency… so that we have the best-in-class model.”
The SEC’s next spotlight game comes Saturday night, when LSU takes the field at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
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