Scott Van Pelt has turned “Bad Beats” into the signature segment of the midnight edition of SportsCenter. Every Monday, the greatest SportsCenter anchor of all time reviews the most heartbreaking ways gamblers lost money over the weekend. This week, he took aim not just at the folks that bet the under in the East Carolina/Tulsa game, but also at the American Athletic Conference.
Quoting his late grandfather, Van Pelt began the segment mentioning that the conference later said the referees made mistakes in the series of events that lead to Tulsa’s win.
“As my grandpa used to say, ‘Hey great! That and a nickel will get you a pickle,” he said before the highlights rolled.
The over/under in the game was 60. East Carolina scored with just over 2 minutes to go to make it 30-27. On fourth down with 1:55 to go, East Carolina broke up a pass intended for Tulsa’s Kelan Stokes. The Pirates celebrated thinking they were getting the ball back. Then, a late flag thrown from a ref 35 yards downfield comes in and ECU is called for pas interference. On the very next play, Tulsa’s TK Wilkerson clearly fumbles the football only to have the call inexplicably overturned on replay.
The final insult to ECU fans came on another fourth down. Tulsa quarterback Zach Smith threw a pass to receiver Josh Johnson. The pass was ruled complete, but a review showed the ball hit the ground. Still, refs upheld the original call.
You can see the whole sequence of events beginning at 6:45 in the video Van Pelt’s “Bad Beats” sidekick Stanford Steve tweeted below.
The American Athletic Conference issued a statement after the game acknowledging the fumble call was incorrect. That set Van Pelt off.
“I want to make this clear. We’re not mad at you, Tulsa. We had you a million times in winners. We had no skin in the game here,” an exasperated Van Pelt said. “But that’s horrendous. Your league said so. They were like ‘Yeah, sorry about that’. But I don’t think Steve, you can call your book and go ‘Listen, listen, that East Carolina money line or that under, they said it was, I mean, I’m not gonna be able to settle. Actually, I won. So you pay me’. Hey stripes, get your head in the game, huh? Focus! Keep your poise out there.”