The official divide: College football needs to nationalize its referees
College football has a problem. And for once, it has nothing to do with the BCS.
It instead has to do with officiating, and certain perceptions of it.
Perception isn’t always the base of truth. Perception and reality are often two different things.
Were there bad calls Saturday in Michigan’s 38-34 win over Notre Dame? Sure. But there are questionable calls in almost every game played.
It’s called being human.
And it’s also why college football needs to eliminate conference affiliation when it comes to officials. Create a national pool. Erase the ambiguity and any perception - there’s that word again - of any sort of favoritism.
Complaining about officiating is as old as sport, but you don’t see any other major sport aligning officials with a certain conference and only that conference. In the NFL, it’s not like there are NFC West officials and then AFC East officials.
On Saturday, there were questionable and controversial calls. Both Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis and Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez said in the 48 hours after the game that they saw calls that they questioned and will send to the Big Ten office for review.
For both, it’s a commonplace thing. However, Rodriguez said he sent no plays for review after the opener against Western Michigan. Weis said his list is longer than usual and that the officiating, in his opinion, “left a lot to be desired.”
In Rodriguez' case, he took more issue with subjective plays, like pass interference and holding calls, the latter of which is an emphasis for officials this year. Weis took umbrage with clock issues and an Armando Allen touchdown being called back on review.
“There were a few calls that I would question, too, on Saturday,” Rodriguez said Monday. “But I didn’t think there was anything in that game that was determining the game. If there was, it would have been one of those big, long plays that we got called for.”
The Big Ten, through spokesperson Scott Chipman, declined to comment about officiating in Saturday’s game when reached Monday.
The perception of bias is not as much of an issue in college basketball, where officials are more known by name and often work games in multiple conferences. They are paid by leagues, but a ref could be doing a Big East game one night, an ACC game the next and a CAA game a third night.
College football officials also don’t have the same name recognition. There isn’t an Ed Hightower or Ted Valentine or Jim Burr or Tim Higgins. They are mostly anonymous, merely associated with their respective conference.
And that’s where the trouble starts. So nationalize it. Then, for instance, Weis can’t pretend to couch his statements by saying he has a Big Ten crew coming in to South Bend this week.
Of course, the argument could be made that whining about officiating - and that’s what most complaining is - a loser’s lament, in this case a curious excuse for a man whose autobiography is titled “No Excuses.”
But any argument Weis may have is diminished if there is a national officiating pool.
And questions about officiating and specific officials in various conferences - think Oklahoma-Oregon in 2006, where the Pac 10 suspended officials for a game as well as controversial calls by Big Ten official Stephen Pamon's crew in two games in 2007 - haven’t made things any easier as far as how college football officiating is viewed.
College football has begun an attempt to lessen the perception, hiring former Big Ten director of officials Dave Parry as the national coordinator of officials. But that’s only a step. And considering college football’s notoriously well-known problems with speed when it comes to changing the game, don’t expect it to be changed within the next year or so.
“Will the day come where the conference tags is moved from officials and it’s a national body? It may be the long-term goal,” said Nick Carparelli, the Big East Associate Commissioner for football. “But I don’t think it’ll happen in the next five years.”
So like they did with instant replay and overtime -- and are still doing concerning a potential playoff and a non-BCS school in the national championship game -- those surrounding the game must wait.
And wait.
And hope that someone or something, eventually, forces a change.
Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow on Twitter @mikerothstein.
Comments
sparky
Sat, Sep 19, 2009 : 4:06 p.m.
Ok look. Straight up notre does make choices that cause them calls, but in the MIchigan State Notre Dame game today there are so many missed and bs calls it is not even funny
bigblue#7
Tue, Sep 15, 2009 : 2:07 p.m.
Sorry Charlie.... Tell The Free Press your story, I am sure they will run with it!
djuninho
Tue, Sep 15, 2009 : 10:35 a.m.
When I first read "Nationalize" I thought you meant the federal government should take over officiating... with the way things are going in Washington I would not be surprised if someone in Congress floated this idea!
jcorsican
Tue, Sep 15, 2009 : 7:27 a.m.
The most surprising part about this entire discussion is the royal screwing that the refs put on the Michigan defense. At least 4 blatant holding infractions by ND in the 4th quarter (that went uncalled by the zebras) would have rendered Forcier's last drive unnecessary. A national officiating corp? Completely irrelevant....just ask Bo's teams that played in the Rose Bowl! Kinda like saying that playing bowl games in FL and CA doesn't give FL and CA teams an advantage over Big Ten teams.....the arguement only works until somebody suggests that we play the Rose Bowl in Michigan Stadium in January. I'm sure Pete Carroll wouldn't notice any difference!
Dave
Tue, Sep 15, 2009 : 6:10 a.m.
Mike, I was giving you the benefit of the doubt for a while now. However, I can now see why Michigan fans don't particularly like you. Your recent posts on this game and on your comments on WTKA don't give Michigan nearly enough credit. Your review of the game and this post make it seem like ND lost the game because of its own mistakes and Big Ten referees. Good, bad and missed calls happen in every game. ND had the opportunity to negotiate a neutral set of referees into its contract but didn't do so. Whining about the referees now for a few calls that could have gone either way is just sour milk. Your performance on WTKA also left a lot to be desired. You again discredit Michigan's win against Western by saying you didn't believe HIller would revert to junior high school form. For some reason, you seem to deflect credit due to Michigan's improvement, and honestly, it does annoy me as a Michigan fan. I wish it was easier to identify which posts were written by you before clicking on a given link to a story so I can just avoid reading your columns completely. Most every link has "rmoore" as the author. Dave Chicago (where I have to listen to ND's crap almost everyday)
tomhagan
Tue, Sep 15, 2009 : 12:22 a.m.
Lets get this straight: ND has had opportunities to join the Big 11 and they turned them down quite arrogantly... and now they complain about a Big 11 crew officiating their games? To quote the Warden in Shawshank: "Its...One big d*mn conspiracy...and everyone in on it" OK..and I have a 911 conspiracy to sell Charlie too, after I get done editing the Zapruder film.
aarox
Mon, Sep 14, 2009 : 10:15 p.m.
As a long time referee at a reasonably high level (I'm not just your average WMWolv despite opinions to the contrary :), I know of no top-caliber referee that cares about anything other than keeping the game under control and fair for the players. My integrity and credibility are immensely more important than my whistle and my flag. To act otherwise would be insanity, in an era where college sports have become a significant part of our economy, and is covered by tens of cameras, hundreds of true journalists, thousands of pundits, and millions of fans. However, hard as we try, many referees cannot help but be affected by who is hiring them and where their next paycheck is coming from. Being hired by one team or one league adds unnecessary stress to our job, and can do nothing but hurt the quality of our work. Not all of us, and not all of the time, to be sure. If you work in the big company world, your company probably has a quality function, or an auditing function. If your company has any sense at all, it is set up as an independent function. There's a reason for that. The ability to be impartial and fair is essential for credibility and for freedom to make the right call. Sad to say, but I hear it every day: in today's world, whether UM or Notre Dame wins is more important to a lot of people than whether GM makes a go if it. If it really is that important to you, you should insist on reasonable safeguards to protect the integrity of the referees and the game - the quality function if you will. Anything less is just throwing us to the wolves. Just my $0.02
1bit
Mon, Sep 14, 2009 : 9:24 p.m.
Nationalizing the officiating crews obviously will not eliminate bad calls, but merely blunts the question of "bias". But I would expect home teams to still get better calls as the fans help remind the officials of penalties and missed calls. With that said, it is an interesting idea. I know nothing about how referees improve themselves, but there does seem to be differences in quality among the different conferences. Anybody remember that Michigan-Nebraska bowl game from a couple years ago? Those referees weren't biased, they were just terrible...
aarox
Mon, Sep 14, 2009 : 8:29 p.m.
As you can see from the posts, this is completely Charlie Weis' fault. We have nothing to do with this! Even RR said that he "sent no plays for review after the opener against Western Michigan." Boy if ever there was a place to complain about calls potentially affecting the outcome of a game, that was it. I mean, it was the first game!
tomhagan
Mon, Sep 14, 2009 : 8:21 p.m.
Weiss is full of garbage. He is just making excuses for his bad coaching and loss... bad calls went both ways...for example, check out the photo in this link...one of MANY MANY holds by ND that were not called: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Brandon-Graham-keeps-his-head-but-only-barely-?urn=ncaaf,189417 Give us a break. This is a joke. Michigan 38 Weiss 34
amazenblue
Mon, Sep 14, 2009 : 8:18 p.m.
What's next? The state of residence of the official? Republican or Democrat? Face it...there is no way to get around accusations of bias no matter what. Anyone watching professional sports sees an endless stream of blown calls, home job-crowd affected, favored coach and athlete protection, etc. Rothstein even bringing the subject up once again validates his lack of understanding and can I repeat?; his bias.
2000Blue
Mon, Sep 14, 2009 : 7:57 p.m.
Wow. Charlie uses the old "refs hate us" excuse and now we should have a national pool? If ND wins that game, this article doesn't exist because RR (thankfully) doesn't whine. Those same B10 refs helped OSU beat USC too because they are bias... Oh wait, USC won that game.
ohiowolverine
Mon, Sep 14, 2009 : 6:57 p.m.
There are going to be bad calls in every game. Just like the Den Cinn game yesterday, Interceped by Cinn, called incomplete, next play Den scores and wins. Charlie Tuna can cry all he wants but it will never change. ND could always join the big ten and then they would have their own refs too! Go Blue!!!
tater
Mon, Sep 14, 2009 : 5:55 p.m.
Nice quote from RR: "I didnt think there was anything in that game that was determining the game. If there was, it would have been one of those big, long plays that we got called for. That definitely looks like a not-so-subtle dig on the Great White Whale. What's really funny to me is that Notre Dame has traditionally gotten so many homer calls over the years, that when a game is evenly called, Weis thinks he is being "cheated."