Iowa State lost to Oklahoma State 37-20 on Saturday in a game that turned on a key end of half sequence. With seven seconds left before the half of a tie game, Oklahoma State handed the ball to Desmond Roland at the two-yard line. He was ruled in, but Iowa State clearly disagreed.
See for yourself here:
Following the game, Iowa State AD Jamie Pollard took to the mic and explained that his school has been receiving unfair treatment from Big 12 officials:
"Iowa State University takes great pride in how we conduct our business, and those of you who know me personally know I work very hard to make sure my staff and I adhere to that," he said. "That being said, we’ve been on the short end of several controversial calls and it’s hard to sit idle and watch ESPN, Fox, other announcers — not debate, but to feel sorry for Iowa State because maybe there will be another apology for a call. Coach Rhoads and I have tried to deal with that internally, and have tried to do it the right way. But it’s no longer fair to put our student athletes, our coaching staff and our fans in that position."
When asked why he felt this way, Pollard raised a conspiracy theory that the Big 12 is retaliating for an unnamed issue he adn head coach Paul Rhoads brought to the conference 18 months ago.
“Coach Rhoads and I, a year-and-a-half ago, raised an issue, and we were the lone vote, and ever since that time, we’ve been on the short end of the stick. I don’t know how things change. But it’s frustrating and it’s not fair. It’s not fair, again, to our players. It puts them in a position that I know a couple of them did some things during halftime that I know are inappropriate. I don’t fault them. I don’t fault them. They’re frustrated."
He continued:
"I recognize that the Big 12 does not allow comments to be made on officiating. And I recognize there are penalties for that. But folks, our institution’s been penalized already. I can think of three situations where the fine has been pretty great because we lost games as a result of calls that either we were apologized (to) for or the media certainly felt we should we certainly should have been apologized to. We can’t get that back. That ends careers for football coaches, ADs and presidents, and so something’s got to be done. I don’t know what it is, but there needs to be more accountability in what happens in certain situations."
It's now that I should note that A) Roland appeared to be in the end zone on the play in question, and B) the Cyclones were outscored 24-14 in the second half.