There have been a number of questionable calls from officials during college bowl season, but none were sketchier than what we witnessed during Friday’s First Responder Bowl.
The game saw the heavily favored Texas State Bobcats taking on the underdog North Texas Mean Green. The majority of bettors likely placed their hard-earned money on the favorites, and they couldn’t have liked what they saw from the refs during a very questionable sequence in the first quarter.
Trailing 7-3, it looked like Texas State had taken a lead when Jaden Williams took a screen pass 70 yards down the field. However, while cameras appeared to show him crossing the goal line before stepping out of bounds, the refs strangely refused to review the play and spotted the ball at the one yard line.
No big deal. The Bobcats would just punch it in from there, right? Well, that’s what appeared to happen as quarterback Jordan McCloud reached across the goal line on a QB draw play, but once again, he was mysteriously spotted short of the end zone, with no review taking place.
Next up, it was running back Deion Hankins’ turn to cross the goal line, only to be shadily spotted short. And that was followed by a questionable false start penalty on Texas State during third down, setting them back five crucial yards.
Texas State would eventually come up short on third down, forcing them to kick the field-goal despite clearly crossing the goal line on three occasions before that.
One fan on X decided to document the entire sequence so that you can see the sketchiness for yourself.
Social Media Thinks Texas State-North Texas Was “Rigged”
Whether they had the over or Texas State to cover the spread, fans watching the game were quick to call out the officials for rigging the game.
“I’ve never seen anything like that, not one of them were reviewed either, it made no sense to me,” one fan complained.
“This is pretty freaking blatant…. Horrible calls on the field and I don’t have any skin in the game… wow,” another fan said.
In the end, Texas State would prevail by a score of 30-28, but they failed to cover the 13.5-point spread while going under the total of 65.5.
