Yesterday, a lacrosse quadrupleheader took place in Charlotte, N.C., an annual event which is put on by Corrigan Sports Enterprises, an event management company which has done a number of lacrosse events across the United States over the years.
The contests ranged from a girls’ high-school game in the morning to a Division I showdown between Penn State and North Carolina as the nightcap.
In the fourth quarter of the game between Penn State and North Carolina, North Carolina had seemingly scored a tie-breaking goal to go ahead 7-6. However, there was a call for a video review for a possible crease violation.
Here’s where things get a bit murky.
While the officials consulted with a replay official at the edge of the field, the play-by-play booth went a bit off the rails. The announcer, Booker Corrigan, made it seem as though he was the replay official, in charge of making the decision as to whether the game officials were correct.
“We are the review booth also,” he said. “Folks and listeners, I appreciate you bearing with us because we are the review booth.”
Technically, he was somewhat correct. As Corrigan Sports Enterprises was the “home” broadcaster for this series of neutral-site games, it needed to provide the replay from any available angles.
From what was quoted from the broadcast, that happened.
“Can you back it up so that we can see the crease of the Penn State goal?” Corrigan said. “Get ready to pause it, get ready to pause it, get ready to pause it, and I do not see him touch inside the crease. Can you rewind it one more time, please?”
Corrigan appeared to be acting as a video director. But his words also made it seem as though he was going to be a game official. That was debunked by a statement made in the last day or so from the NCAA Division I men’s rules subcommittee: The review was undertaken, in accordance with the rules, by the game officials only, with a monitor at the scorer’s table on the field, and the subsequent ruling was made by the game officials only without any outside input.
For the sake of the integrity of the game, I hope so.