Instant Replay

I'm watchng the Giants-Panthers game and I'm thinking just how superior the Big Ten's replay system is to the NFL's. Jeremy Shockey caught a pass and as he was tackled the ball came out. Carolina recovered. The live view on the TV made it look like he was down, but replay showed the ball was clearly ripped out before he was down. After conferring for a while, the refs ruled down by contact. This meant it could not be challenged. Luckily, the Giants punted on the drive and it made no difference. In the Big Ten this would have been automatically reviewed and the Panthers would have had the ball, significantly changing the momentum of the game. Now the bowl season showed us that a replay system is only as good as the people running it, or in the case of the national championship game of how well the equipment is working, but it seems unfathomable to me that the NFL leaves such uncertainty in the playoffs.