College refs already in mid season form after wild no-call on Rueben Chinyelu

Opening night was a frustrating one for Florida. The Gators had an early 12-point lead against Arizona that slipped away, and a lack of shotmaking down the stretch ultimately led to a 93-87 defeat at the hands of the Wildcats.

For better or for worse, it was Rueben Chinyelu who had the viral moment of the night, as college refs already proved they are in midseason form.

Tearing jerseys is now legal in college basketball

In our preview, we had predicted that since it was opening night, refs were more prone to call fouls so that they could establish their standard for the season.

We might have missed on that one, as in the first half, Chinyelu went up for a rebound with an Arizona player. As Chinyelu came back on the defensive end, announcers picked up on the back of his jersey that was ripped in half.

In full view of the ref, replays showed that his jersey was grabbed and torn into pieces, forcing Chinyelu to get a new jersey, No. 34, for the rest of the game.

If you are piecing two and two together, no foul was called on the play. The refs did later check if there was a flagrant foul via replay and decided there was not. And since they couldn't go back and call a common foul, Chinyelu just had to play with his new jersey and didn't even get a foul to show for it.

In a case of cruel irony, Chinyelu would later foul out on a call far weaker than getting a jersey ripped off.

Florida ultimately lost the game because of a lack of three-point shooting, and Arizona was able to match Florida's size, something few teams did last year.

But if refs are already in midseason form and are letting things like ripped jerseys go, it might be a long season for Gator fans.