Officials in Auburn-Miss. State game broke a very clear replay rule

I’m hot. 

And the one thing I can tell you about my anger is that the people who hang out with me in the “Ice Cube” here at the Fox Network Center were pretty happy about it, because it may have warmed up our space to about 38 degrees. 

What has me so fired up is a something I caught while watching the Auburn-Mississippi State game Saturday. 

Here was the situation: 

Mississippi State had the ball, third-and-three at its own 43-yard line with 4:50 left in the third quarter. Mississippi State led 28-20. Bulldogs quarterback Dak Prescott dropped back to pass and the ball intended for Josh Robinson was incomplete. A flag was then thrown for intentional grounding. 

As the officials started to huddle to talk about the penalty, I could feel my temper start to rise. Because what I saw, I’m not sure I still believe. It appears to me to be a total misuse of instant replay.

It’s pretty apparent that the referee and his crew are listening to instructions from someone upstairs to determine if Prescott was in or out of the pocket. 

After throwing the flag, they then picked it up after what looked like confirmation that Prescott was out of the pocket. 

Fine -- and I don’t really mean that because what they did wasn’t fine.  Yes, they got the call right and I’m happy about that -- and I do really mean that. 

But does the SEC have their own set of rules? 

You can’t use the replay official to officiate a call on the field that is not reviewable. No aspect of intentional grounding is reviewable. 

Are you going to let somebody on the same communication system as the officials call down on everything to determine if a call is or isn’t a face mask penalty? Or if a call is or isn’t interference?  

This has always been my concern about putting communication systems on officials and having them in direct communication with someone upstairs -- either an observer or the replay officials. 

I’m still mad about this. So much so, that the temperature in the cube is now up to 43.