Tim Buckley

tbuckley2@theadvertiser.com

The Sun Belt Conference today announced that commissioner Karl Benson has "reprimanded" the officiating crew that worked UL's 34-31 win over Georgia State last Saturday night at Cajun Field.

The nature of the reprimand has not been disclosed, but the reason for it was.

And, in what might be a surprise to some Cajun fans, it has nothing to do with two somewhat controversial calls, a second-half interference in the end zone on UL safety Tracy Walker and UL defensive lineman Justin Hamilton's first-half ejection for targeting GSU quarterback Nick Arbuckle.

Rather, the Sun Belt "acknowledges that there was a mistake in counting downs," it said in a statement.

Further explanation from the SBC: "A loss of down occurred during the final drive of the second quarter when Georgia State had possession of the ball with less than a minute to go.

"After a series of penalties – most notably a false start – Georgia State should have had the ball on first down with 15 yards to gain. A timeout was taken to avoid a 10 second runoff and upon resumption of play, the down and distance was wrongly marked as second down and 15 yards to gain."

Said Benson in prepared remarks: "The Sun Belt is committed to ensuring that our game officials, like our coaches and student-athletes, are held to a high standard. When that standard is not met, we must acknowledge an error occurred."

GSU wound up with a late-half field goal out of the drive anyway.

Because his ejection happened in the first half, incidentally, Hamilton will not have to miss any of 2-3 UL's next outing, an ESPN2-televised game that comes next Tuesday night at Texas State.