The D-Day is here! The big face-off between Ryan Day’s Ohio State Buckeyes and Marcus Freeman’s Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Now, it looks like something is dampening the spirit of the College Football National Championship Game. But what’s that? The question- who is going to be the officiating crew for the finale? The answer is enough for both programs to tread with utmost carefulness.

After all, the CFP has given the responsibility to an SEC crew. The fans are already commenting on how it’s going to be raining penalties. Well, not to forget they had some bitter experiences.  

A cautionary tale for Ryan Day and Marcus Freeman

January 20, marks an important day for both Freeman’s and Day’s squad. Notre Dame is playing for its first since 1988. On the flip side, Day’s boys are on their way to bag the national championship title since 2014. Plus, a win on Monday would cap off an impressive four-game bounceback for the Buckeyes. Well, with this, they might come off clean of their loss against Big Ten rival Michigan on Nov. 30 at home. More than being excited about the outcome, the fans are probably disturbed by the officiating crew scene. As College Football Insider Brett McMurphy tweeted, “SEC officials will work tonight’s @CFBPlayoff title game b/w Ohio State & Notre Dame. It’s same crew that worked Fiesta Bowl b/w Penn State & Boise State #CFBPlayoff.”

As per the reports, it is the first time that an SEC crew has been working the national championship game since the start of the CFP era in 2014. The crew will have Steve Marlowe as the referee, Brent Sowell as the umpire, and Chad Green as the head judge among others. The names are enough to bring a flashback among the fans. And it’s definitely not happy memories. They were the same referees who were there in the Penn State vs. Boise State match-up in the Fiesta Bowl. 

The penalty numbers would make the Day and Freeman’s program and their fans turn into complete panic mode. In that game, PSU-Boise combined for 23 penalties and 188 penalty yards. Also, the Nittany Lions gave Boise State 13 penalties for 90 yards. Courtesy? Of course Marlowe and his squad. Fans are already getting the jitters!      

Fans go all concerned over fair play  

But why the SEC crew for the Day and Freeman’s big day? Since the Buckeyes belong to the Big Ten and the Fighting Irish come off as independent, maybe the committee thought of going for a neutral game. Neither of the programs has played with this crew this year. Plus, since the officiating crew worked in big SEC games, it should help them work the biggest game of the year. But fans are speculating that there will be no fair play. One of them believes that it’s the playcalling is going to be fixed, “So the fix is already in got it.”

Already, Day’s Buckeyes have struggled all throughout the season when it came to falling prey to officiating crew’s decisions. The program is 134th when it comes to opponent penalization! So a fan gave a wake-up call, “get ready for lots of flags.” Fans still can’t forget how the Broncos’ historic season came to an end following a 31-14 loss. For a part of which a fan holds the officiating crew responsible and predicts the final results, “So it’s a slanted, unprofessional Officiating Crew, and Ohio State has already won. (Not claiming that PSU beat Oose because of Refs- score margin too big…  but they definitely had a SLANT to their calls.)”

Well, Marlowe is not the only one to be scared of. Not to forget another SEC referee, Matt Loeffler who penalized Texas Longhorns eight times in the first half against Georgia. Maybe that’s why a fan surrendered, “I’m out.” Another fan thought of spreading some salt on fresh wounds. We know SEC bigshots Georgia Bulldogs, Alabama Crimson Tide could not make it till the last. So this is the only way they could be happy, “It turns out that the SEC did make the National Championship game. Lol.” Now let’s see whose side will the stripes take, Ryan Day’s boys’ or the Fighting Irish’s?