Joel Klatt calls for change in college football after controversial end to Virginia Tech vs. Miami

No. 8 Miami survived quite the scare on Friday night in a game against Virginia Tech that came down to the very final play in regulation.

And at least one national analyst in questioning the system when it comes to officiating.

Virginia Tech nearly snatched a win in the final moments when it threw a Hail Mary into the end zone. Initially, a whole slew of people came down right where the ball was. There was no call at first.

“I mean do any of us really trust that Virginia Tech didn’t catch that Hail Mary in the back of the end zone?” FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt said on The Joel Klatt Show.

“Folks: One, I don’t know how you just signal touchdown that late. People are celebrating. Is it a touchdown? And all the sudden his arms just kind of go up, like no one’s going to see him. Touchdown? Almost like it was a question. I’m Ron Burgundy? So now it’s a touchdown and it’s like, ‘Well, we’ve got to review it.’ Then they overturn the Ron Burgundy touchdown. And then it’s like overruled. It’s like hold on, hold on. How did both of those calls get made? I think both of them are probably wrong. It’s probably not a catch, but you can’t overturn it if that’s the way it’s called. I think it was all wrong, and it calls into question, by the way, what I’ve been banging on for a long time, why do we have conference officials and not national officials?”

The call favored Miami, which hung on to win after an improbable back-and-forth in the waning moments. The Hurricanes’ perfect season and their College Football Playoff chances remained intact.

Of course, Klatt pointed to the fact that it was ACC referees making the call as a point of interest.

“Because it at least can bring up the element of a conflict of interest,” he explained. “And I’m not suggesting that there’s a conflict of interest here, but in a day and age in which conferences are highly competitive with each other for spots in the playoff, for revenue, for all of it, all of it. They’re just highly competitive with each other.

“And now all the sudden you get your officials and your replay center involved in a call with the team that is your highest-ranked team. That is a conflict of interest. This is why we should change the way that we have officials slated and governed in college football. It should be a national officiating body in college football.”

Miami survived and won, but it’s hard not to see the logic in Klatt’s argument about the officiating. It’s a system that certainly invites some unwelcome questions.