This is nice. Is that polyester? Hey, Beanie, feel this.

One thing we all came out of Saturday night complaining about was the obvious holding calls the referees were ignoring all night. Even the Ohio State fans couldn't help but notice their guys were getting away with it.

What about the performance by the refs last night? Disclaimer: I don’t think the zebras had anything to do with the outcome - I just think they sucked. Browning got away with at least three holds...

Kevin went back and looked at the tape of Ohio State's final drive and the blatant holds, tackles, and pushes from behind are astonishing. 

I don't subscribe to the "letting them play" philosophy of officiating just because it's the last minute of the game. The rules are the rules from the opening kickoff until the final whistle blows. I understand that you could technically call holding on every play if you wanted to, but when a man is obviously beat and drags his opponent down from behind you have to throw the hanky. I don't care if it's the last play of the national championship game. You can't let one team get the upper hand by breaking the rules in the name of "letting them play".

Now I've seen message board chatter where Buckeye fans are whining about Penn State not getting a single penalty the entire game. I'm sure you could put together a video showing Penn State offensive linemen getting away with holds. It's not my intention to say the officials were biased in favor of Ohio State on Saturday. Not at all. I'm just saying this is a trend we see week in and week out and the Big Ten needs to take a close look at their officiating and make some changes. And while they're at it, they should look at home town clock management officials. 

So when Ohio State kicks a 41 yard field goal just before the end of the half it takes seven seconds. Three of which come off the clock after the ball has hit the catch net in the back of the endzone. This denied Penn State an opportunity to get the ball in the hands of Derrick Williams who has been electric on kick returns this year. But when Penn State kicks a field goal with a minute left in the game to take a seven point lead, the time keeper is perfectly awake and stops that clock as soon as it hits the net giving Ohio State as much time as possible on their final drive. The proper call to be sure, but where were those quick reflexes in the first half?

Now did this have any effect on the game? I don't think so. Ohio State would have probably done a squib kick or Williams would have tripped over the 20 yard line. And if the Buckeyes had kicked it out of bounds Joe probably would have taken a knee. Penn State still won and they surely got the benefit of the doubt on a few calls. But this conference has a history of home town clock officials giving their teams a few extra seconds here and there. (Spartan Bob anyone? Ann Arbor 2005?) All I'm asking for is consistency. Something has to be done to take the officiating out of the story lines.