<p>[ESPN</a> - Yellow Jackets, Wolverines, Midshipmen earn high marks - College Football](<a href=“Marlins' Jazz Chisholm loses salary arbitration on birthday - ESPN”>Yellow Jackets, Wolverines, Midshipmen earn high marks - ESPN)</p>
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<p>[North</a> County Times - Jay Paris’ Chargers Insider column - Poinsettia Bowl still young, but growing up](<a href=“North County”>North County)</p>
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<p>[SignOnSanDiego.com</a> > Sports – 5-6 Navy back flying below pursuit radar](<a href=“http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/college_football/20071219-9999-1s19navy.html]SignOnSanDiego.com”>http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/college_football/20071219-9999-1s19navy.html)</p>
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<p>[Deseret</a> Morning News | Navy’s Pehrson playing a familiar foe](<a href=“http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695237330,00.html]Deseret”>http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695237330,00.html)</p>
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<p>Coach Niumatalolo takes over a team he is quite familiar with in the Midshipmen, who play Utah in Thursday’s Poinsettia Bowl.</p>
<p>[Sign</a> Up](<a href=“Navy coach stays the course”>Navy coach stays the course)</p>
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<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/19/AR2007121902306.html?hpid=sec-sports]washingtonpost.com[/url”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/19/AR2007121902306.html?hpid=sec-sports]washingtonpost.com[/url</a>]</p>
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<p>[Niumatalolo</a> is already looking to the future - Navy Sports - (HometownAnnapolis.com)](<a href=“Real Estate – Capital Gazette”>Real Estate – Capital Gazette)</p>
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<p>Replay Ruling
By
Bill Wagner
Annapolis Capital Blog</p>
<p>The Capital has learned that Naval Academy athletic director Chet Gladchuk has sent a letter to Mid-American Conference commissioner Rick Chryst seeking a full and complete explanation for Thursday night’s monumental mistake in the Poinsettia Bowl.</p>
<p>The Mid-American Conference officiating crew admitted in a statement after the game that the replay ruling with regard to a fumbled football hitting the pylon was wrong. Various sources have revealed that the replay official who upheld the call on the field did not know the pylon was part of the end zone.</p>
<p>Naval Academy officials were not satisfied with the post-game statement and want to know exactly how an official charged with reviewing controversial plays could not know such a basic rule of football.</p>
<p>Officials acknowledge late play should have been touchback</p>
<p>ESPN.com news services</p>
<p>Updated: December 22, 2007, 1:24 PM ET</p>
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<p>The officiating crew from the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl has acknowledged an error in a fourth-quarter call that affected Navy’s chances to beat Utah.</p>
<p>The crew and replay official, all from the Mid-American Conference, issued a statement after the game that a fourth-quarter play at the goal line should have been ruled a touchback and Navy ball at the 20-yard-line, rather than Utah ball at the 1-yard-line.</p>
<p>After turning the ball over on downs, Utah scored on its next possession to go ahead 35-25 and held off Navy’s late comeback to defeat the Midshipmen, 35-32, on Thursday night.</p>
<p>On third and goal from the 4-yard line, Utah wide receiver Jereme Brooks caught a pass from Brian Johnson. As he extended the ball toward the goal line, he was hit by Navy cornerback Ketric Buffin. The ball fell forward and hit the pylon.</p>
<p>Initially, the referee ruled that the ball belonged to Utah at the 1-yard line. Navy called for a review, but the review official confirmed the call on the field.</p>
<p>After the game, the crew admitted it was the wrong call.</p>
<p>“The ball was fumbled forward and hit the pylon. The pylon is out of bounds and also in the end zone,” read an official statement from the officiating crew, citing Rule 8, Section 6, Article 1, Item 1 in the NCAA college football rule book. “There was a mistake made. It should have been ruled a touchback and the ball should have been placed at the 20-yard line.”</p>
<p>Navy took over on downs, but then gave the ball back to Utah on downs, and the Utes scored on a one-yard run by Darrell Mack on for a 35-25 lead with 1:27 to play.</p>
<p>Navy scored on the ensuing possession and recovered an onside kick, but the Middies’ drive for a tying or winning score was ended by an interception.</p>
<p>S.D. tourism slows down during the holidays, but restaurants, hotelscash in
when fans come to town for Poinsettia and Holiday games</p>
<p>By Keith Darc</p>
<p>By
Bill Wagner
Annapolis Capital Blog</p>
<p>The Capital just got off the phone with Naval Academy athletic director Chet Gladchuk to find out if there was any news with regard to the egregious officiating error that was made in the Poinsettia Bowl.</p>
<p>Gladchuk sent a letter to Mid-American Conference commissioner Rick Chryst on Friday morning seeking an explanation for the incorrect replay ruling that occurred in the fourth quarter of Navy’s narrow 35-32 loss to Utah. Gladchuk has not heard back from Chryst yet, but hoped to by the end of the day.</p>
<p>Six days after the fact, Gladchuk was still fuming about the fact the replay official did not know the rule that a fumbled ball that hits the pylon is a touchback, calling the mistake “totally inexcusable.”</p>
<p>Gladchuk said there is nothing that can be done now, terming the situation a “fait accompli.” However, Gladchuk would like to know how such a mistake could occur and to express to Chryst that he did not feel proper procedure was followed.</p>
<p>“In my opinion, the replay official should have requested a conference with the field officials to discuss what he was seeing on videotape. If that had happened, I am certain one of the members of the crew would have pointed out that the pylon is part of the end zone and therefore the ruling should be a touchback.”</p>
<p>The Capital will provide another update once Chryst replies to Gladchuk.</p>
<p>By Steve Wieberg, USA TODAY
There’s a new eye on college football officials.</p>
<p>The NCAA and the nation’s 11 major conferences will announce Friday they are setting up a supervisory body and appointing the Big Ten’s Dave Parry as the sport’s first national coordinator in an effort to improve consistency in areas ranging from on-field game management to the use of replay to officials’ training.</p>
<p>“Our goal,” Parry said, “is to get the best possible officiating product we can get regardless of conference, regardless of geographic region.”</p>
<p>The College Football Officiating program also could sharpen the sport’s response to gambling and other issues, officials said. Friday’s announcement comes a week after Yahoo! Sports reported one Big Ten game official regularly gambled in casinos and incurred losses that contributed to his and his wife’s bankruptcy in 2002.</p>
<p>The timing is unrelated to the report, officials said. The new program has been discussed since spring 2006 and was officially organized four months ago. Its 15-member governing board has met twice. However, the possible tightening of background checks of game officials one issue raised in connection with the Big Ten referee is among its early initiatives.</p>
<p>“That would be something we think the CFO could help facilitate, just as an overall response system when situations present themselves fights, incorrect calls and what-not,” said NCAA Executive Vice President Tom Jernstedt, the board chairman.</p>
<p>Another area of interest: the 2-year-old replay system. Concerns about consistency and reliability “stimulated” sentiment for the program, officials said.</p>
<p>Though more structured, the new initiative parallels the oversight of officiating in college basketball. Parry, the Big Ten’s officiating coordinator for 19 years, will move full time into his new position in February.</p>
<p>“If it works as well in football as it has in basketball, I certainly think it has merit,” said Rick Wulkow, a former official who is executive director of the Iowa High School Athletic Association and a member of the board of the National Association of Sports Officials.</p>
<p>“If you come at it from a national perspective rather than conference by conference, it can’t do anything but help.”</p>
<p>The cost is projected at $1 million over five years.</p>