By BRENT WORONOFF, Daytona Beach News-Journal
DAYTONA BEACH -- Three Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference football officials were suspended for one game for making inaccurate calls during last week's Bethune-Cookman game at Norfolk State, the conference announced Friday.
"We regret that there were officiating errors during this game," MEAC Commissioner Dennis Thomas said in a statement released by the conference office. "Ultimately, officials have a responsibility to help protect the integrity of the game and let the teams and coaches decide the outcome on the field."
The statement said the inaccurate calls included "three offensive plays for blocking below the waist, as well as two pass-interference calls, one on offense and one on defense."
The conference did not release the names of the suspended officials.
B-CU President Trudie Kibbe Reed asked the conference to evaluate the matter earlier in the week, and Wildcats coach Alvin Wyatt sent the conference office a tape of the plays in question, according to the MEAC release.
Norfolk State rallied from a 21-10 halftime deficit to defeat B-CU 38-31 last Saturday. The Spartans scored the winning touchdown with 36 seconds left in the game.
"I'm happy and excited," Wyatt said of the conference's decision. "It's something I can read to my players to get them back in the right frame of mind."
BC-U Head Coach Alvin Wyatt asks game officials to make the correct calls on the field versus Norfolk State. MEAC Commissioner says Wyatt was RIGHT, officials WRONG.
The Wildcats play their homecoming game against Morgan State today at 4 p.m. at Municipal Stadium.
"This took a lot out of us," Wyatt said. "It just drained me emotionally, as well as our team, because we knew we did everything we could to have success in the football game and to win the football game.
"This does change the outcome of the game in our minds now. Our hearts tell us regardless of the score, these rulings tell us we won the football game."
In a MEAC media teleconference on Tuesday, Wyatt said the officials misinterpreted a rule that allows an offensive back to make a block below the waist.
Photo: BC-U alignment that was deemed illegal by game officials in game with Norfolk State.
On Friday, Wyatt said the same official to whom he complained about the blocking calls called pass interference against B-CU late in the game. That penalty, which was one of the inaccurate calls cited in the conference release, negated Antwane Cox's interception in the end zone that would have given the Wildcats the ball back leading 31-23 with about four minutes left.
"They had the ball on the (B-CU) 14-yard line and the penalty is supposed to be half the distance," Wyatt said. "But they got the ball on the 2."
Norfolk went on to score a touchdown and tie the game at 31 with a 2-point conversion. The Spartans scored the winning TD after B-CU threw an interception.
Wyatt said the Wildcats would never have been passing in that situation if Cox's interception had not been overturned.
"With the unfavorable position we were put in, we could not win the football game," Wyatt said. "Now everyone knows what happened in the ball game.
"Dr. Trudie Kibbe Reed fought the battle for us. We put it in her hands. Our kids now feel that justice has been served."
OF NOTE: Thomas clarified a comment he made earlier in the week. Thomas said Friday,
"MEAC head coaches should not communicate with officials during the week."
Jackson State will open the 2008 football season on a Sunday in Orlando against Bethune Cookman University, school officials announced today.
