I said a few days ago that the Grimes TD catch reversal was such a bad call that it bordered on suspicious. Well, the Pac-10's head of officiating, Dave Cutaia, has now convinced me of a full-blown conspiracy. He offered up the following defense of the botched review:

"The replay official felt he had a shot that showed the point of the ball hit the ground. This is basically a judgment call on his part, as an on-field official might judge defensive pass interference."

First of all, the replay officials only have access to the shots that are broadcast. The broadcast angles clearly showed Grimes' hand underneath the ball. A shot from the other side of the field may have shown otherwise, as Grimes' hand may not have obstructed the view from the other side, but like I said, the replay officials had access to no such angle. He couldn't possibly have seen the point of the ball hit the ground because he couldn't even see the point of the ball!

Second of all, this was not a "judgement call" in any way shape or form! You need indisputable visual evidence to overturn a call on the field!!! The replay system was enacted in order to remove judgement calls from the game!!! In what galaxy does the term "indisputable" mean "subject to judgement"?

Adding fuel to my conspiracy theory, Cutaia refused to release the names of the replay officials. Now, I realize that I'm venturing into paranoid-Michigan-fan territory here, but how is this anything but blatantly suspicious? I would dig deeper into this story, but I fear I might "disappear."

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