Conspiracy theorists are, for the most part, a bunch of looney wingnuts who rail about the Illuminati, the Bilderbergers, Free Masons and various other farcial topics suitable for only Coast to Coast AM.

It might remind one of Mel Gibson’s paranoid taxi driver Jerry Fletcher in the 1997 thriller “Conspiracy Theory” with Julia Roberts.

Steve Wilson is sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at 601-636-4545, ext. 142 or at swilson@vicksburgpost.com.

“Serial killers. Serial killers only have two names,” Fletcher said in the film. “You ever notice that? But lone gunman assassins, they always have three names. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, Mark David Chapman…”

The Jerry Fletchers of the world exist in college football, too. Just ask any fan and they’re likely to blame “the refs” in a close loss.

Referees make a million snap judgment calls in a game that moves at the speed of sound. Of course they are going to make mistakes. Instant replay helps on many of those, but there is one area where the human factor still holds sway.

Penalties.

Earlier this season, in a game critical to both LSU and Georgia, the referees made two calls that defied all reason, as they flagged the Georgia Bulldogs for a 15-yard excessive celebration penalty after scoring the go-ahead touchdown. The resulting yardage gave the Tigers the breathing room they needed and Charles Scott scored to give the Tigers a victory. Then he and the Tigers were flagged for a celebration as muted as Ash Wednesday on Bourbon Street. Huh?

Can you say makeup call? That’d be the only rationale at work.

Saturday, Florida and Arkansas were doing battle in a slugfest. The referees flagged Arkansas for a phantom pass interference call on a crucial third down and hit the Razorbacks with a 15-yard personal foul that left the CBS broadcast team of Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson searching in vain for a reason for the flag.

The crew of referee Marc Curles, umpire Ronnie Jones, linesman Randall Kizer, line judge Michael Shirey, back judge Michael Watson, field judge Greg Thomas and side judge Jesse Dupuy worked both controversial games.

Were they biased against Arkansas and Georgia in the favor of then-undefeated LSU and undefeated Florida? Did they get “the call” from Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive to “see to it” that the Tigers and Gators stayed undefeated until they played each other a few weeks later? Was it so the conference could jack up ratings revenue for broadcast partners ESPN and CBS?

The quick answer is no. But these game-changing penalties did point one thing that all SEC fans can agree with: the richest conference in all the land has some of the worst officials. While they get things right most of the time, the mistakes of SEC officials over the years have been the elephant in the room when talking about quality of play in the league.

Slive is right when he said there should be “no public hanging” of officials after blown calls and errant yellow hankies, but the SEC really needs to invest in upgrading their officials. Curles’ crew was suspended on Wednesday by the conference for Saturday’s Tennessee-Alabama game, and even though that is a step in the right direction, further changes need to be made. Bring in officials from a neutral part of the country like the Midwest, California or the Northeast. Make sure they are well-compensated and of the highest caliber possible.

That would go a long way toward transparency and silencing the conspiracy nuts.