You are right. The refs didn’t make the stupid coaching decisions. Like I said, refs can make it much much tougher to win (not impossible) and we have to play/coach flawlessly to pull it off when they put their thimb in the scale like they did in the first half.
It is real simple. This is a multibillion dollar industry run by millionaires/billionaires where decisions are made to maximize profits, like every other industry. Even just a few percentage point advantage for a certain outcome makes a big difference (see Vegas). SEC wanted maximum of their teams in the playoffs and they were going to help that happen. Have seen the same shit with other teams (GA-GA Tech and VT-Miami) in different conferences all year. Until we get the ref crews to be independent, truly uninterested in the outcome and not run by conferences this will keep happening. Maybe now that SEC got what it wanted, we don’t have to have this as a factor till next year.