This was poorly called, especially the holding calls - that one call (holding) changes the entire flow of the game, and they don't have to be dishonest or blatant. All they have to do is watch our O line more than their O line - happens all the time, but with PAC-12 refs, it's blatant, planned, scripted, and fulminant. That's why I'm scared to death for Cal.

Unfortunately, the pressure on the QB thing is huge on both sides of the ball, as evidenced by our lack of pressure in the 1st half, and the results. I'm convinced that it's the most important call in college football, and not calling holding evenly can realistically make a 20-40 point difference in a game, especially when TO's are factored in.

I do think most refs try to be honest - they see it and call call it, don't see it and don't call it. The trouble is, a very few actually go out of their way to truly be not just honest, but truly unbiased, and see things without their conference-tinted glasses. The power 5 love this, or it would have already changed. It's a no brainer to have all non-conference games officiated by a non-conference affiliated crew, but the NCAA won't do it, because the power 5 know it'd cause them to loose a lot more games, and even the playing field (literally).