In Depth Look at B1G Officiating and OSU/Michigan Game

[Mavric]

Interesting article about what goes in to evaluating officials.

Know this about the college football officials who draw your ire on Saturdays: Their every move is scrutinized.

From the moment they leave home for a game, they're on company time. That means no beer with Friday dinner. And if their game is in Las Vegas, no restaurant attached to a casino.

Once they step onto the field, if they chitchat with a coach or athletic director from School A, they're expected to give equal time to School B.

Bill Carollo, the Big Ten's coordinator of football officials, has heard coaches gripe about refs who seem to be waving to members of the crowd on one side of the stadium before a game.

Aha! I knew that zebra had friends on the other side!

And then Carollo informs the coach: The official was signaling to a crew member in the press box that his beeper was working.

Carollo met with the Tribune for three hours last week at Big Ten headquarters in Rosemont to offer insight into the profession, review the season and break down some controversial plays.

Should a replay review have overturned J.T. Barrett's awkward fourth-and-1 scamper in the Ohio State-Michigan game? Should Ohio natives have been allowed to officiate the game? We'll get to that.

Link

 

[NUance]

After games an NFL official spends five to six hours grading every play, using the TV replays and sometimes the "All-30" tape — a wide-angle view with all 22 players and eight on-field officials.

After an independent evaluator (NFL ref) grades every play, the head referee reviews it with Jerry Markbreit, a veteran of 43 seasons and four Super Bowls, or Dean Blandino, the NFL's senior vice president of officiating. Carollo, a former NFL (two Super Bowls) and Big Ten official, breaks any ties.

The calls are graded on a scale of 0 to 7. Routine calls earn a 6, though points can be deducted for flawed positioning. Blown calls merit a 0 or 1. Top officials average near 6.

How to earn a 7? Save an entire officiating crew or make a proper ruling on the last play of the game. For example, the Michigan State Hail Mary that beat Wisconsin in 2011. A replay review reversed the call on the field; Keith Nichol had, in fact, broken the plane.

Carollo says his crews average 5.6 mistakes per game — and that includes incorrect mechanics or faulty positioning.

That's quite a review—IF it's as impartial as advertised. I wonder how many of the 5.6 mistakes are blown calls rather than faulty positioning?

 

[Apathy]

As a high school football official I can honestly say that the crew that I've been with for the past 7 seasons, we were the ONLY crew in the Siouxland area, maybe even the whole state of Iowa that provided each coach a DVD disk with a yellow manila envelope with a stamp on it for those coaches to send us a copy of that games film on the DVD so that we can evaluate ourselves to better our officiating. After last season we don't provide DVD's anymore because everything is available on HUDL now but we still get access to those games via HUDL

Our crew also doesn't socialize to the coaches other than our first meeting during pregame to get any information on unusual plays, any casts or braces that we'll need to inspect, if the team will be using wideouts and to shove sportsmanship down that coaches throat haha. We always avoid any laughing with the coaches, fans and players, socializing with players, coaches and fans after the pregame meetings, and no fist bumps, butt slaps, etc because we don't want anyone making any conspiracy theories about us but most of all we want to look professional.

Just my two cents on this subject

 

[Making Chimichangas]

The only thing I don't like is that officials are not publically accountable or can't be criticized (without coaches or players being fined).

If an official blows a call, or makes a call that is controversial, he/she should have to have a press conference and account for his/her actions.

I have never understood why officials don't have to answer publically. If we could go back in time, who on this board wouldn't relish the opportunity to interrogate the crooked a** officials while Nebraska was still in the Big 12? The game against Texas A&M where we got flagged for 15 personal foul penalties? Any game against Texas, that referee Steve Usacheck or whatever his name is? I mean the list is practically endless.

More recently, last year, in our game against Wisconsin, I'd like to ask why Wisconsin's OL never gets called for holding? It was on a Wisconsin TD pass and (I believe it was) Ross Dzuris was absolutely held by a Wisconsin lineman. You can literally see the Wisconsin OL's arm hooked around Dzuris's body. And it wasn't in a pile or obscured either, it was on the play side and out in the open. Wisconsin gets called for holding there and maybe instead of a TD they kick a FG. With the way the game played out, we'd a won.

But I get it...Nebraska, playing a night game against Wisconsin, in Madison...we're never supposed to win. The officials somehow "don't see" every Wisconsin infraction, but hey seem to see and call every infraction Nebraska has. Strange how that works.

And when we're at home against Wisconsin? The only time the officials will get involved is if it is late in the game, Wisconsin is in trouble, and needs a bailout.

 

[HuskermanMike]

The only thing I don't like is that officials are not publically accountable or can't be criticized (without coaches or players being fined).

If an official blows a call, or makes a call that is controversial, he/she should have to have a press conference and account for his/her actions.

I have never understood why officials don't have to answer publically. If we could go back in time, who on this board wouldn't relish the opportunity to interrogate the crooked a** officials while Nebraska was still in the Big 12? The game against Texas A&M where we got flagged for 15 personal foul penalties? Any game against Texas, that referee Steve Usacheck or whatever his name is? I mean the list is practically endless.

More recently, last year, in our game against Wisconsin, I'd like to ask why Wisconsin's OL never gets called for holding? It was on a Wisconsin TD pass and (I believe it was) Ross Dzuris was absolutely held by a Wisconsin lineman. You can literally see the Wisconsin OL's arm hooked around Dzuris's body. And it wasn't in a pile or obscured either, it was on the play side and out in the open. Wisconsin gets called for holding there and maybe instead of a TD they kick a FG. With the way the game played out, we'd a won.

But I get it...Nebraska, playing a night game against Wisconsin, in Madison...we're never supposed to win. The officials somehow "don't see" every Wisconsin infraction, but hey seem to see and call every infraction Nebraska has. Strange how that works.

And when we're at home against Wisconsin? The only time the officials will get involved is if it is late in the game, Wisconsin is in trouble, and needs a bailout.

Have you ever officiated a game? When you get in the officials shoes and ref a big time game you will understand the pressure that is on you. Blaming the refs is a nice cop out and frankly it is getting old. If your team is the better one why don't they simply play better? Each team will get their calls but today it is just simply to easy to blame the officials rather than point out mistakes players/coaches made that would have helped the team win.

These officials are human and they make mistakes, the national championship game this year for basketball showed that the refs got nervous and gave bail out calls all the time. Gonzaga could have won if they made shots in the paint or took better shots down the stretch. The officiating was even for that game and the better team won. Calling out the refs may sound cool, but really its just an excuse to blame somebody for the loss. Just look at the Kentucky fans they are under investigation for threats to a ref.

 

[huKSer]

The only thing I don't like is that officials are not publically accountable or can't be criticized (without coaches or players being fined).

If an official blows a call, or makes a call that is controversial, he/she should have to have a press conference and account for his/her actions.

I have never understood why officials don't have to answer publically. If we could go back in time, who on this board wouldn't relish the opportunity to interrogate the crooked a** officials while Nebraska was still in the Big 12? The game against Texas A&M where we got flagged for 15 personal foul penalties? Any game against Texas, that referee Steve Usacheck or whatever his name is? I mean the list is practically endless.

More recently, last year, in our game against Wisconsin, I'd like to ask why Wisconsin's OL never gets called for holding? It was on a Wisconsin TD pass and (I believe it was) Ross Dzuris was absolutely held by a Wisconsin lineman. You can literally see the Wisconsin OL's arm hooked around Dzuris's body. And it wasn't in a pile or obscured either, it was on the play side and out in the open. Wisconsin gets called for holding there and maybe instead of a TD they kick a FG. With the way the game played out, we'd a won.

But I get it...Nebraska, playing a night game against Wisconsin, in Madison...we're never supposed to win. The officials somehow "don't see" every Wisconsin infraction, but hey seem to see and call every infraction Nebraska has. Strange how that works.

And when we're at home against Wisconsin? The only time the officials will get involved is if it is late in the game, Wisconsin is in trouble, and needs a bailout.

And somewhere on a Badger website some poster said the same thing about the refs in a Wisconsin loss