Are you ready for some football? Heck yeah!
This year we ordered single game tickets instead of the nickel package to USC football. The weekends fly by when there are home games and depending on the time we are gone all day Saturday and part of Sunday. I guess we are getting too old.
Anyway the first game we are going to is the Trojans vs the Utes. The PAC10 expanded to the PAC12 so University of Utah and the University of Colorado joined. It' a pretty big deal for Utah. I've followed the Utah sports program for many years, have a red shirt and Noah was almost a Ute until they cancelled their men's cross county and track program. He even took a visit and bought a sweatshirt.
The Browns (Connie and Russ) and the Taylors (Bridget and me) are always up for new things. The kickoff was 4:30 so we decided to try Moreton Fig. It's a new restaurant on campus. The game day menus are themed based on the opponent. Today for example they had a beehive sandwich on the menu. Utah is also known as the beehive state.
http://www.moretonfig.com/Home
Hence the name. The big Moreton Fig Tree on campus.
The game was very close. USC was again playing to the level of their competition. USC was ahead 17-14 and with time running out Utah was going to try for a game tieing field goal. USC blocked the FG and ran it back for an apparent touchdown. The team rushed the field and the refs threw a penalty flag. They took the points off the scoreboard and called a penalty on the Trojans.
Final score 17-14. Not so fast, my friend. On the way back to the Brown's house the score was revised. USC won 23-14. The penalty was a dead ball foul meaning it happened after the play. The touchdown counted.
Below is an article in the paper about the controversy and betting.
Most Las Vegas sports books had the Trojans favored by eight. Anyone who bet on USC needed those six points to win their bets. Taking away the game-ending TD allowed those who bet on the Utes to cash in.
That alone might not have been a problem for the bookies -- except that two hours after the game ended, the Pac-12's head of officials announced that game officials had misinterpreted the rule. Players on the bench can't be given a "live ball" penalty for celebrating/taunting. Only players on the field can.
The players on the bench should have been given dead ball penalties, which cannot take points off the board. USC got their six points back and the final score was changed back to 23-14.
USC covered again.
Unfortunately for gamblers, many Vegas sports books refused to change the score. 17-14 was their final number and they were sticking to it. According to RJ Bell of Pregame.com, dozens of angry USC bettors demanded to be paid, to no avail.
A few bookies did relent, and changed the score for USC. But during the time between the ending of the game and the rule change, most Utah bettors had already cashed in, meaning those books paid out to both sides.
So an already controversial rule has now created plenty of real headaches for gamblers and sports books. And if you bet on USC, we hope you didn't throw your ticket away
Read more: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-09-12/sports/30155576_1_torin-harris-usc-trojans#ixzz1m1BfgFNC
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