Big Ten Refs

M

MichiganDad3

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I saw this in another post.

knapplc said:
Last year Michigan's SOS ranked 40th. That stands to improve by adding Alabama, but not so much that it overtakes ours.

The biggest single advantage we're going to have is that we're playing them at home. Big Ten teams often play poorly on the road, for whatever reason.
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Do you think the Big Ten officials favor the home team? Perhaps by giving the benefit of the doubt to the home team? I though Nebraska got a few breaks on calls in home games last year, and got a few bad calls or non calls on the road. I also saw that in other games like Michigan's loss to Michigan State.

 
Other Big Ten fans will chime in here and probably agree with this, but the reputation of Big Ten officials isn't good around the confererence. Most everyone dislikes them.

However, the main reason I've been given by other Big Ten team fans is that, when you travel, often you're playing in front of 100K opposing fans, and this creates a very difficult environment.

 
knapplc said:
Other Big Ten fans will chime in here and probably agree with this, but the reputation of Big Ten officials isn't good around the confererence. Most everyone dislikes them.

However, the main reason I've been given by other Big Ten team fans is that, when you travel, often you're playing in front of 100K opposing fans, and this creates a very difficult environment.
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Isn't this true for any conference and for any sport? Rarely have I heard favorable comments toward officials and that mostly is "Well, they called it equally bad for both sides". The best you (they) can hope for is having no comments at all. (I've umpired and ref'ed wrestling before)

 
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I am very happy with the officiating compared to the end of the Big 12 era. It just seems like the Big 10 referees are instructed to let close calls go to the home team. Of course I am basing this on no evidence; just a few calls that I remember.

 
knapplc said:
Other Big Ten fans will chime in here and probably agree with this, but the reputation of Big Ten officials isn't good around the confererence. Most everyone dislikes them.

However, the main reason I've been given by other Big Ten team fans is that, when you travel, often you're playing in front of 100K opposing fans, and this creates a very difficult environment.
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Knap - Without going into details, one of my very good friends (and neighbor) is a B1G FB official for our conference. He has been doing it for many years and loves this part-time job immensely! I've personally watched him officiate many MSU games and after reviewing (DVR) many of the close calls he made, I can honestly say he did a darn good job of being fair and honest for both teams on the field. We also discussed the 'pressure' that these guys are under when a critical conference game is on the field. I asked him if he plans on officiating again this year for the B1G and his eyes opened wide and said most definitely!!! He loves the intensity and atmosphere of game day as much as we do !!!

As you can imagine, these individuals are under constant scrutiny by the conference and universities, and hold regular meetings to work out improvements for this sport we enjoy so much...

Again, my own $0.02

 
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Big 10 teams do poorly on the road because the conference is weak and road games are tough. The refs in the conference seem very poor, but they seem to make the absurdly bad calls both ways.

 
From what I understand the crew that did our game with Mich is known to give them the calls, and it showed. Outside of that game I have no qualms. Still better than what we saw in the 12 even before we were leaving(see our last two games against TTech).

 
mrandyk said:
Big 10 teams do poorly on the road because the conference is weak and road games are tough. The refs in the conference seem very poor, but they seem to make the absurdly bad calls both ways.
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I'll take this over the absurdly bad calls going mostly one way we had in the Big 12. Honestly, my main gripe with the B1G is they seem to have a more NFL mentality with DPI/ OPI. But after that last year in the Big 12 they just seemed like the best refs in the world.

 
3 stadiums over 100,000 seats.

Camp Randal a very intimidating to play in.

I think things like that are what makes it harder to play on the road.

Although yes, the refs are horrible


 
knapplc said:
Other Big Ten fans will chime in here and probably agree with this, but the reputation of Big Ten officials isn't good around the confererence. Most everyone dislikes them.
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If true, doesn't this suggest that the Big 10 officials are probably doing their job correctly (and thus aren't a factor for home-field advantage as suggested)?

 
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I prefer what we've got now to what we had.

Refs that try to at least be somewhat impartial - even if they aren't great at their jobs are far, far better than a bunch of referees that along with the conference commishioner are all bought and paid for by one program in the conference.

 
As someone who's reffed a fair share of football and basketball games, it always amuses me to hear people complain about the officiating. Both in games I've worked and games I'm watching, it's funny to listen to fans (even fans cheering for the same team I am) yell at the top of their lungs when it's obvious they have no idea what they're talking about. I've even had coaches argue with me about plays that are explained very precisely in the rule book. Really makes me wonder how many coaches have even opened one up.

Does that mean that officials always get every call right? Of course not. But they get a lot more right than 99% of people give them credit for.

 
The old ND-Michigan contract stipulated it would be the only rivalry to have the home team use her own conferences refs. Made no sense until they destroyed their credibility in 2009. Wolverines remain in denial, but the other fans just laughed at both of us.

 
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