ESPN: Does the Big Ten have a credibility problem with its officiating?

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Bennett:

Does the Big Ten have a credibility problem with its officiating?

We're just two years removed from a very poor year by the league officials. And on Saturday night, the crew working the Ohio State-Penn State game was involved with several head-scratching -- and at times, just plain botched -- calls. "Clownish" is how PennLive.com's David Jones described the refereeing in State College, and it's hard to argue against that wording.

For years, fans have long accused the league of protecting its brand-name teams and have theorized that those schools get the benefit of the whistle. That's a bit too much tinfoil-on-the-head, conspiracy-mongering for me. After all, Michigan lost at Rutgers earlier this season in part because of a bad call on a Wolverines' pass that should have been ruled a completion.

But it's also true Ohio State got some breaks in its overtime win Saturday, most notably on the interception by Vonn Bell that actually hit the ground and on a field goal that came clearly after the play clock had expired. James Franklin had to hold himself back from saying what he really thought about those calls.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/109849/big-ten-morning-links-57

Go Gophers!!
 

The refs have seemed exceptionally bad this year. I can't remember such consistency with bad calls before.
 

Should have been titled, Does NCAA have a credibility problem with its officiating?

Notre Dame /FSU game
Miss calls in SCSU and Auburn game
Numerous botched plays by Pac 12 officials

Officials are human and miss calls. The issue I have is when instant replay gets it wrong. That is much harder to understand. There are a lot of variables that play into it. Speed of the game, number of passes, number of plays. Officials have to have 100 % focus for nearly 4 hours.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Should have been titled, Does NCAA have a credibility problem with its officiating?

Notre Dame /FSU game
Miss calls in SCSU and Auburn game
Numerous botched plays by Pac 12 officials

Officials are human and miss calls. The issue I have is when instant replay gets it wrong. That is much harder to understand. There are a lot of variables that play into it. Speed of the game, number of passes, number of plays. Officials have to have 100 % focus for nearly 4 hours.
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Agree with the bold. I have disagreed with a lot of "reviewed" calls this season and yes not just with B1G officials.

Disagree with the underlined statement. 2 of those 4 hours the refs are standing around talking with the guy in the red hat and for 2 minutes every game they watch our dance team (guess maybe you could call those 2 mins focusing too)
 

bottlebass said:
Agree with the bold. I have disagreed with a lot of "reviewed" calls this season and yes not just with B1G officials.

Disagree with the underlined statement. 2 of those 4 hours the refs are standing around talking with the guy in the red hat and for 2 minutes every game they watch our dance team (guess maybe you could call those 2 mins focusing too)
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Yes, it's a great gig if you can get it.
 


I feel like replay has ruined officials in a way, it seems like they are afraid to make a big call and know the replay crutch is behind them. Then when the replay wastes a ton of time and fails too it is even more infuriating
 

Ripping the refs needs to be acceptable without repercussions for coaches, players, ADs, etc.
Every single person involved in the game other than the refs gets immense pressure and scrutiny when they screw up at their jobs. The refs should be no different and frankly some of the things they've missed this year makes you seriously wonder what they look at in replays. How can a stadium scoreboard have a definitive screen shot of something and then have the play not be overturned due to a lack of conclusive evidence?
Rip em publicly all the H when they screw up.
 

Ski U Master said:
I feel like replay has ruined officials in a way, it seems like they are afraid to make a big call and know the replay crutch is behind them. Then when the replay wastes a ton of time and fails too it is even more infuriating
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So much hinges on what the original call was. The officials have to let the backwards pass play go last week. They could have been 7 for the Gophers and a game changer. It's not good enough to give the ball to the Gophers, they should let it go and then make a call at the end of the play. Replay can then confirm. The whistle blew before the Gophers clearly recovered the ball. Replay covered the errors as best it could.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
So much hinges on what the original call was. The officials have to let the backwards pass play go last week. They could have been 7 for the Gophers and a game changer. It's not good enough to give the ball to the Gophers, they should let it go and then make a call at the end of the play. Replay can then confirm. The whistle blew before the Gophers clearly recovered the ball. Replay covered the errors as best it could.
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In fairness, we got 7 on a long pass on the very next play. I agree that it could have hurt us when they didn't blow the whistle, but we still got the ball, still got the score, and still got the momentum boost of a big play (and our offense got some confidence).
 



The problem is that they go to some sophisticated grading system for evaluating officials. They should bring back the old system: make a bad call, get hit with a whiskey bottle.
 

What i don't undestand is why on fumbles/interceptions they don't routinely err on the side of letting the play play out knowing the replay will correct it if wrong and no harm done. We have had two weeks in a row where killing the play early has cost us potential touchdowns (this week we scored next play anyway).
 

I think it always comes to back to level of pay for officials and demands. NFL football officials are the only one's paid enough to make it a stand alone job. Yet the demands on the College officials are just as high as the NFL level. Yes they choose to do the work and give it their best, but the "stipend" is laughable.
 

LakerFan said:
What i don't undestand is why on fumbles/interceptions they don't routinely err on the side of letting the play play out knowing the replay will correct it if wrong and no harm done. We have had two weeks in a row where killing the play early has cost us potential touchdowns (this week we scored next play anyway).
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I've had that thought too, but I think the "indisputable evidence" standard for overturning makes that a bad idea.

Imagine a scenario like the backwards pass on Saturday where it is not so obviously backwards as the Illinois pass was, and rather was very marginally a forward pass. I could see the ref thinking "I think that was forwards, but if I let it play out, then we can go back and review, and if it really was a forward pass, it will get overturned and no harm done." Then it gets up to the replay booth, and the booth guy thinks "I think that was ever so slightly a forward pass, but I don't think the video evidence is conclusive enough to say that there is indisputable video evidence, so I have to stick with the call on the field." If that happens, it should have been incomplete, both the field ref and the replay ref thought it was incomplete, but despite the fact that all involved officials saw it correctly, they are making the wrong call and creating turnover which shouldn't have happened.
 



Shocking, eSECpn picks the B1G refs when the SEC, PAC10 and Big12 have all sucked as well.
 

The refs aren't the problem, it is the league instituting so many new rules and points of emphasis and procedures and nonsense. The refs are graded every play and every call. In the past they would pass on a lot of calls as insignificant to the game, or in the interest of flow, but now they have to make those calls for their grade. It all comes from the top and the bureaucracy, not that suddenly we can't find decent refs.
 



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