At no point during the College Football Playoff semifinal game between No. 2 Michigan and No. 3 TCU was the officiating exceptional. It wasn’t even good and included a questionably overturned Wolverines touchdown, followed by a fumble on the one-yard line.
That overturned touchdown probably stings a little extra for Michigan, which ultimately lost, 51-45, while the Horned Frogs advanced to the national championship game.
Officiating aside, it was an incredible game and the kind fans want out of playoff matchups. An instant classic. In the third quarter alone, the two teams combined for 44 total points, which is a record for a College Football Playoff quarter, per ESPN’s broadcast.
But this fantastic game ended in the dumbest and most unfortunate way.
Some of the ridiculousness was the result of Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh’s extremely suspect clock management at the end. But a lot of it came back to officiating.
Michigan tight end Colston Loveland caught the final pass of the game, but as he was already being tackled, TCU cornerback Kee’yon Stewart went in for another tackle that really resembled targeting.
This play at the end of the 4th quarter was reviewed and the play was not called for targeting. pic.twitter.com/fzVUgISaag
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) January 1, 2023
Officials reviewed the play and decided it was not targeting, but it looked an awful lot like the literal definition of it. What’s more, had it been a targeting call, Michigan would have been able to keep its last-second efforts alive.
Should this have been called Targeting? pic.twitter.com/7sE9wZ4rbD
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) January 1, 2023
Inexplicably, though, it wasn’t deemed targeting, and the officials’ no-call left college football Twitter outraged and questioning them and the rules.
Feature image courtesy of ESPN.
Blatant targeting by TCU player tbh
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) January 1, 2023
That’s targeting
— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) January 1, 2023
The 305,662-page Michigan message board thread on whether that was targeting will be incredible
— Matt Brown (@MattBrownCFB) January 1, 2023
If that wasn’t targeting what is? #CollegeFootballRigged
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) January 1, 2023
And that should be the end of the worst part of College Football.
They have no idea what is and isn’t targeting.
— Scott Hanson (@ScottHanson) January 1, 2023
This Michigan fan is EVERYONE in America right now.
That was targeting… no doubt about it. pic.twitter.com/ScdlB8ABVc
— Brian Y (@byysports) January 1, 2023
If that's not targeting there is no targeting
— Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) January 1, 2023
LOL that’s an all-time “let’s just get out of here” moment on the targeting review.
— Brett Kollmann (@BrettKollmann) January 1, 2023
It would have objectively sucked for targeting to be called. But if it was the second quarter, targeting would've been called 1,000 times out of 1,000.
— Adam Kilgore (@AdamKilgoreWP) January 1, 2023
They 1000 percent didn’t call that targeting bc they didn’t want this game to go down like that
— Trevor Sikkema (@TampaBayTre) January 1, 2023
That’s totally targeting
— Cam Heyward (@CamHeyward) January 1, 2023
I didn’t want to see it called, but … how was that not ruled targeting
— Pete Fiutak (@PeteFiutak) January 1, 2023
Replay in CFB is broken & Targeting foul is equally broken!
– Clearly a TD in first half
– 100% targeting (and I hate targeting) at endOfficiating in CFB needs an overhaul…No reason for every conference to have their own officials…Should have a national officiating base
— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) January 1, 2023
Did Michigan deserve to get bailed out there? Uh, probably not. Was it targeting? Uhhhh, definitely yeah.
— Derek Schultz (@Schultz975) January 1, 2023
I have no dog in this fight but that’s absolutely targeting pic.twitter.com/6vK0oVCwql
— heatdaddy (@heatdaddy69420) January 1, 2023
The refs knew they weren’t making it out alive if they called targeting there 😂 #CFBPlayoff
— Bad Sports Refs (@BadSportsRefs) January 1, 2023
