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Officials make calls, and sometimes they make mistakes. Football players try their hardest, but sometimes they drop passes. Examples of both helped determine a couple of pretty important football games in the past week.

The botched plays were much more subtle, but they helped determine the outcome when Ohio State won the NCAA playoff final 42-30 over Oregon on Monday.

The Oregon Ducks, directed by Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota, overrun opponents by making smart plays, and running off so many of them that their opponents have scant time to get organized between plays. The Ducks didn’t do that against Ohio State, but a couple of big/little misplays helped the Buckeyes to the title.

If you recall, Oregon moved smartly down the field for a touchdown. Shortly thereafter, Mariotta was moving them again on a swift and efficient drive, and when it stalled at third-and-4, it looked only temporary. Next play sent a receiver down six yards, then button-hook back. Mariota fires a strike, for an easy first down. But the receiver dropped the ball. Shortly thereafter, on another third down play, Mariota sent a receiver up the right sideline, got him out there alone, and lofted a perfect pass to him. This one would be a long gain for a first down, and quite likely a touchdown. But the receiver looked ahead and fumbled the catch.

Both dropped passes came on third down plays, both of which were designed to get first downs and keep the fast-moving Ducks moving. When they were dropped, Oregon had to punt, instead of lining up for a new series of downs. As the game wore on, the Buckeyes took over, physically dominating the Ducks. The announcers kept talking about how mediocre Mariota looked, and how he’s unlikely to make it in the NFL. They even showed repeated video of the few bad passes Mariota threw, overlooking the fact he was 24-37 for 333 yards and two touchdowns.

Facts are facts, however, and the Ducks didn’t show their rapid-fire attack, mainly because they were on defense most of the game, and a rapid-fire offense -- or even a slow-it-down offense -- doesn’t work right without the offense on the field. Another thing: Oregon was missing three wide receivers, two with injuries and one with a suspension, and one tight end. Early in the game, another tight end went down with an injury. So the two critical dropped passes were dropped by receivers who were not the three highly skilled wide receivers or two impressive tight ends.

None of that reduces the excellence of Ohio State freshamn quarterback Cardale Jones, who was 16-23 for 242 yards while also running like a runaway freight train. Another freight train that ran away was OSU sophomore Ezekiel Elliott, who punctured Oregon’s defense for 246 yards on 36 carries as the Buckeyes outrushed Oregon 296-132. The Buckeyes also converted eight of 15 third-down plays, and all three fourth-down plays, while Oregon was 2-12 on third downs and 0-2 on fourth.

So the two early dropped passes didn’t do much in the 42-20 final score. Except, they prevented Oregon from hitting stride with the rapid offense, taking the lead, and making it a game for the ages. Instead of a game only Buckeyes fans could love. And think about this: Next season, Ohio State will have three quarterbacks -- count ’em, 3 -- who will rank better than the best quarterback on any other Big Ten team!

Packers Tall Order

Seattle has been my pick for the Super Bowl last year and this. The Seahawks won it last year, and face a giant hurdle in the Green Bay Packers this Sunday for the NFC title. However, I feel bad for Green Bay if Aaron Rodgers isn’t 100 percent, and his injured leg left him far from 100 percent in the 26-21 victory over Dallas last Sunday. Rodgers was 24-35 for 316 yards and three touchdowns. Not bad for a guy on one leg.

However, it was in that game that two officials calls made an enormous difference. On one, a Packers receiver was making a diving catch near the Dallas goal line. Two video views of it appeared to prove it was a good catch. The third view, however, from behind the receiver, clearly showed the point of the ball hitting the ground and the ball popping free on impact before being gathered in again. The announcers assured us that the call would be overturned, no question. The officials announced: After further review, the play stands as called. It’s a catch. The Packers scored a touchdown because of it.

Near the end of the game, just after the Packers took their 26-21 lead, Dallas was going for it. Tony Rome was having a big day, and he sent ace receiver Dez Bryant down the left sideline. Perfect pass, perfect leaping catch by Bryant. Has to be a touchdown. But video reviews proved the ball had come loose on impact with the ground, and even though Bryant regained control as he rolled over, it was the same rule in question -- a receiver must “complete the process” of making the catch. It may be the worst rule in the NFL’s list of convoluted rules.

But the intriguing thing about this particular play is another subtle factor that I don’t think the officials or the replay guys realized. When Bryant went down, reaching the ball forward as so many receivers do, he didn’t have his hand on top of the ball to place it in the end zone like a loaf of bread; instead, he kept his hand under the ball, so when the ball squirted free for an instant, it was the back of his hand that hit the ground and the ball popped up. As Bryant rolled over, the ball came down on his chest and after a brief bit of grappling, he regained control.
True, he didn’t have control throughout “the process,” but the ball hasn’t hit the ground yet, as I saw it. When the ball bounced up and his hand remained under it, it landed on his body. Had a defensive back nabbed it, it would have been an interception. But so consumed were the officials to test completion of the process, they may have overlooked the possibility that the ball may not have been a clean catch, but it remained alive.

All those two calls did was take away one touchdown from Dallas, and give one touchdown to the Packers -- a 14-point swing in a game decided by 26-21. Fortunately for most of us, it’s OK, because it’s hard to summon up much sympathy for the Cowboys!

UMD Hockey Doubles Up

The UMD men’s hockey team wound up yielding a split at North Dakota, and they return to take on Western Michigan Friday and Saturday nights at 7, while the UMD women, after being stung by a split against Bemidji State last weekend, are also at home, facing St. Cloud State in 3 p.m. games Saturday and Sunday at AMSOIL Arena.

The women played hard last weekend, but dropped a 4-1 game Saturday before winning 2-1 Sunday. Bemidji State goaltender Brittni Mowat was the main pain for the Bulldogs. “She’s been that good all season, really,” said Bemidji coach Jim Scanlan. “She gave up one goal in two games against Minnesota.”

UMD captain Zoe Hickel scored for a 1-1 tie in the second period, but Kaitlin Tougas and Kristin Huber scored for the Beavers, and Stephanie Anderson closed it out with a late power-play goal. “We aren’t going to let a loss disrupt us,”  said Hickel. “If we want to be a championship team, we have to stay focused.” Sure enough, UMD bounced back to win 2-1 for a split.

Improvements can be made

Before signing off on a highly entertaining college football season, let’s celebrate the long-awaited move by the NCAA to create an actual football championship bowl playoff to determine a valid national champion. Can there be improvements? Yes.

First, the committee naming the four playoff teams should not put out its ratings until the end. By publishing ratings through the last few weeks, everyone could compare how near-identical they were to the AP and other media ratings. Release the “official” ranking only at the end, with all final adjustments inb place. Instead, the committee held fast with 1. Alabama, 2. Oregon, 3. Florida State, 4. Texas Christian, followed by Ohio State and Baylor. Ohio State lost its second star quarterback of the season in the final regular-season game, but put in an untried freshman and crushed a very good Wisconsin team 59-0 in the Big Ten divisional playoff game.

That was worthy of all the accolades. But No. 4 TCU also won its final game, 77-3. Justified as OSU was to move up to fourth, TCU’s 77-3 romp was hardly grounds for being unceremoniously dropped to fifth.

There are five major conferences, and four slots, so now there are those clamoring to expand the four to eight. That’s ridiculous in a college setting. My proposal would be to start with a guideline that the five major conferences would each get one, and only one, entry for consideration. Any second-place team doesn’t deserve to advance because it already had a chance to claim the top spot. The committee could rank four, and eliminate one conference champ, but better would be to rank five, and teams 4 and 5 play each other in a one-game elimination on the week before bowl games. Loser goes home, winner advances to face the No. 1 seed, while 2 and 3 meet in the other game.

In those years when an independent or a team from a less prestigious conference deserves consideration, the committee ranks the top six, then pair them 6 vs. 3 and 5 vs. 4, with those two play-in winners determining the two bowl entries to oppose teams 1 and 2. If you don’t like that, think how much TCU and Baylor would have enjoyed the chance.

We’re not going to pretend that Ohio State is the best team in the nation, but the Buckeyes certainly have been exactly that through their last three games, drubbing Wisconsin 49-0 in the Big Ten’s divisional playoff, taking out No. 1 Alabama 42-35 in the Sugar Bowl, then shutting down explosive Oregon in Monday night’s championship final, 42-20.

It was a fantastic run for the Buckeyes, and also for the Big Ten, which has been floundering in the nether where only historical tradition allowed any reason for pride among the nation’s elite football programs. I agree the Big Ten had fallen behind the skill and performance levels of the other big four conferences, but some of that is hogwash, perpetrated by ESPN Sports, which continues to consider itself valid on the fringe of arrogant, while under a contractual arrangement to promote the Southeast Conference.

By convincing fans, media, and even teams themselves that the SEC is as dominant as it once was, a great disservice was dealt to the rest of the major conferences. A few years back, the SEC was truly dominant, with Alabama, Louisiana State and Auburn all maintaining powerhouse programs, while the Big Ten became the Big Two -- Michigan and Ohio State. Michigan State and Wisconsin moved up to prominence, although Michigan and Ohio State seemed to fade a bit. But we naively went along watching Sports Center and believing that  those SEC teams should always be ranked at the top. Voting media types bought it, too.

I heard ESPN commentators more than once exclaim that evidence of the SEC’s superiority required only a look at all the national champs the SEC had produced. Overlooked was that the championship came down to the two top teams in the final polls led to a single game. An SEC team almost always won, but every year, an SEC team was in that final game, and in some years both teams were from the SEC. Does that improve the SEC’s chances of winning the final game? Of course.
 
If you placed the best Big Ten team -- whether Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State, Wisconsin or Penn State -- in that final game for every one of the last 10 years, the Big Ten representative would have found a way to win at least a couple of those titles.

The upsurge of the Pac-12 led me to the conclusion that it, and not the SEC, is the most impressive conference it was because traditional powers like Southern Cal, UCLA and Stanford were being crowded by the new-wave powers such as Oregon, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah. It was a cry of futility, however, because those teams didn’t get invited to the single-bowl-game championship.
But let’s go back to our comparison of the SEC and Big Ten. There was a belief that the Big Ten could go 0-10 in bowl games this season. The entries in the first four-team playoff would be the top four teams rated by a newly contrived commission. Defending champ and undefeated Florida State, Oregon and teams such as Texas Christian and Baylor would challenge, but the final foursome would have to bow to the strength of SEC teams Alabama, and resurgent Mississippi and Mississippi State. Alabama was the only one that survived to make it.
     
Then came the bowl games. The top SEC teams were Alabama, Mississippi State, Mississippi, Louisiana State and Auburn. All five of them were beaten in the bowls: TCU clobbered Mississippi 42-3; Notre Dame beat LSU 36-28; Georgia Tech beat Mississippi State 49-34; Wisconsin beat Auburn 34-31 in overtime; and the classic was OSU 42-35 over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.

The Pac-12 elite did their thing. Along with Oregon, a 59-20 victor over undefeated and defensing national champion Florida State, Southern Cal beat Nebraska 45-42, UCLA beat Kansas State 40-35, Arizona State beat Duke 36-31, and Stanford toppled Maryland 45-21. Utah also beat Colorado State 45-10, for good measure. Boise State surprised Arizona 38-30, and Washington lost 30-22 to Oklahoma State, which were the only dings in the Pac-12’s invincibility -- until Ohio State did its number on Oregon.

Perhaps the best thing Ohio State’s triumph did was to destroy the outdated notion of SEC superiority. When next season starts, the rest of the country will acknowledge and credit the Big Ten with being right up there with the Pac-12, and the Southeast Conference will have to earn back its respect.

John Gilbert has been writing sports for over 30 years. Formerly with the Star Tribune and WCCO. He currently hosts a daily radio show on KDAL AM.