Jon Joseph Moderator No. 1 Share Posted October 29 The article does come from the SUC Wire but author Matt Zemeck has been a round a long time, is a savvy guy and has given Riley no quarter in 2024. College football officiating crisis needs to be dealt with urgently TROJANSWIRE.USATODAY.COM College football officiating, in the Big Ten and elsewhere, has been really bad this year. The product is getting worse. We need urgent solutions to this problem. The article gives creedance to a number of OBDers calling for CFB Ref Reformation. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Marsh No. 2 Share Posted October 29 I think it might be a little worse. But the reality is that everyone thinks the refs are out to get them and I am pretty sure almost every fan base thinks that their conference's refs are the worst. I know Pac-12 refs aren't perfect but to be honest a lot of the griping we are seeing about Big Ten refs and their no calls are things that we'd expect Pac-12 refs to be flag happy about. The Big Ten refs are absolutely fine (for the most part) with a lot of receiver-defender battles and hand fighting. In many ways they tend to favor the defender in that conflict. Whereas, the Pac-12 refs were always favoring the receiver, I honestly can't remember the last time I saw a Pac-12 ref throw a flag for offensive pass interference. I mean I remember the OPI in the 2020 Rose Bowl game but those oddly enough weren't Pac-12 refs. What we need is a centralized authority on refs that covers ALL of college football. 1 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrJacksPlaidPants Moderator No. 3 Share Posted October 29 On 10/29/2024 at 10:36 AM, Jon Joseph said: The article does come from the SUC Wire but author Matt Zemeck has been a round a long time, is a savvy guy and has given Riley no quarter in 2024. College football officiating crisis needs to be dealt with urgently TROJANSWIRE.USATODAY.COM College football officiating, in the Big Ten and elsewhere, has been really bad this year. The product is getting worse. We need urgent solutions to this problem. The article gives creedance to a number of OBDers calling for CFB Ref Reformation. It's not lost on me that Lane Kiffin's picture is used as the model complainer for this article. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haywarduck No. 4 Share Posted October 29 The whole idea makes me sick. From tosu only complaining about calls that didn't go their way to the yankees complaining about called strikes that cost them the game. People need to take care of their own business and realize others will make mistakes and accept that gracefully. I think it comes down to a societal problem more than an isolated college football problem. We have way too many people looking for someone else to blame rather than stepping up and owning what they have brought to the table. I will start and take responsibility for the attitude I bring to the table. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Marsh No. 5 Share Posted October 29 On 10/29/2024 at 11:48 AM, Haywarduck said: The whole idea makes me sick. From tosu only complaining about calls that didn't go their way Personally, I'm fine with something like targeting that can impact the availability of a player for the next game. However, I do feel that should be something just fine automatically at the end of the week. But for Ohio State's complaint about Oregon and Lanning's 12 man penalty... That one was pathetic. That has no impact on a future game. I'm also fine with coaches submitting a play and penalty for review to get a breakdown of why the flag was thrown. That is a learning experience and a chance for growth. It would also just be nice if the behind the scenes stuff concerning officiating reviews was more public. All refs get reviewed after every game and graded and it would be nice to see that data. No one is expecting a perfectly called game but it'd be nice to know if a game was normal or not. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Kamikaze Kid Moderator No. 6 Share Posted October 29 To paraphrase Lanning, the standard should be the standard. How much holding and grabbing is pass interference and how much is “just letting them play”? How much holding is holding and how much isn’t. When the standard changes from game to game, play to play or even worse which team, that is when it becomes a problem. In hoops I’d usually push it till the edge to find out where the line is. Then after a foul call I’d have a good idea how those refs interpreted the rules. Watching football, it seems that what’s just fine on one play is a penalty on the next. That to me is the problem. Missing calls happens and I don’t really have a problem with that but fluid rule interpretation doesn’t look good. When it happens at key moments or tends to favor a particular team, it looks much worse. 2 2 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
anyotherduck No. 7 Share Posted October 29 Who do the refs work for, themselves? Everyone talking as if the refs are somehow a separate entity when in reality they are employees of individual leagues. The refs are doing what they're told otherwise they'd be replaced immediately. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noDucknewby No. 8 Share Posted October 29 College football is a multi-billion dollar industry. Pay the refs well and hold them accountable (that goes for the replay officials as well). Managing officiating at the national level would probably be desirable, but IMHO just too unwieldy with so many schools and conferences. It probably makes the most sense for the conferences to police their own, but they have to actually do it. As with the rest of college football, if the B1G and the SEC take the lead, the rest of the country will follow. As for rule changes, I like the NFL system for reviews. All turnovers and scoring plays are automatically reviewed, the rest are coaches challenges. College views targeting differently than the pros, so having targeting calls automatically reviewed makes sense, since these can be difficult to judge in real time. What I hate is the booth reviewing a play for targeting when it wasn't called on the field. The refs are pretty flag-happy with targeting as it is. Also--Put a time limit on reviews for criminy sakes. If it can't be decided in the first minute or so, then there is no incontrovertible evidence to overturn it and the play should stand. 1 1 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck Moderator No. 9 Share Posted October 29 On 10/29/2024 at 12:41 PM, The Kamikaze Kid said: In hoops I’d usually push it till the edge to find out where the line is. Then after a foul call I’d have a good idea how those refs interpreted the rules. Watching football, it seems that what’s just fine on one play is a penalty on the next. That to me is the problem. This is a true difference between basketball and football. in the former, after a while coaches and players can see how a game is being called and adjust accordingly. In the latter, that can't be done, consistency in officiating doesn't exist. It isn't the, "they could call holding on every play". It is PI where the trouble exists. Offensive PI is hardly ever called to the degree that when it is it is immediately suspect. The more common defensive PI is judgement to the extreme and very inconsistent. Why are officials protected from accountability? This behind the scenes grading they go through has produced this. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanLduck No. 10 Share Posted October 29 Thanks JJ for posting this. The officiating is a very serious problem. Every fan thinks their conference refs are the worst. But this year there really seems to be glaring issues everywhere. I like some of his solutions. Maybe the head refs should be made into full-time jobs. There seems to be a lot of $$ involved in college football these days, maybe it's about time to invest some of it into the officiating. It's hard to expect part time employees to be the best. If something isn't done, we may end up with more disgusting events throwing debris onto the field. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haywarduck No. 11 Share Posted October 29 Normal and average are the sum total of all the data, both ways added up and then divided by the total data points. What we want is average, normal almost all the time and seldom happens. That is why living in San Diego is so appealing. The weather is almost always pleasant and very predictable. The predicted high temp varies 4 degrees over the next ten days. Where I live it is going to vary by 4 x that much. I hear people all the time lamenting about how we are above average or below average temperature. Average doesn't happen as much as seeing above or below. This is especially true in areas cheaper to live than expensive to live. It drives me nuts when I hear people complain about the weather too! San Diego is extremely expensive place to live. Areas where you see the weather all over the place cheaper. Same goes for officiating. In the NFL they make about $250,000 a year. In the NCAA they make about $25,000 a year. I think we are getting what we pay for, maybe a bit more. I suppose this is just how I look at things, everyone can view things their own way, and live with it. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OhQuack No. 12 Share Posted October 29 (edited) I've always heard and believed that you should be putting yourself in a position where the refs calls, whether good or bad, don't dictate the outcome of the game. I think that this year Oregon has done a really good job of playing that way. I felt like against Illinois was a prime example. They had a few calls (or lack thereof) that were seemingly pretty big. And, in a close nail-biter type game, they would probably have been extremely controversial. (I'm thinking back on some fumbles, blocks in the back, facemasks) BUT, Oregon was dominating both sides of the ball and taking care of business where it needed to. The result was that, although annoying and frustrating, Oregon had put themselves in a position where those things didn't really make a difference. Wouldn't it be fun though, to have ref stats become more public, and be used as an additional metric with regards to sports betting?? (Maybe it already is and I'm just oblivious) Edited October 29 by OhQuack 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fischer Administrator No. 13 Share Posted October 29 Welcome to the forum OhQuack, as we love seeing new voices to add to our community! Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drake Moderator No. 14 Share Posted October 29 If I had a voice in the decision making of the conference I would not recommend full time employment status. I would use full time staff to make the process to receive credentials more vigorous. Which requires a larger time commitment to maintain status, which in turn equals higher pay. Once credentialed, annual continuing education would be required to maintain the ability to work games. Beyond that, a referee is really a thankless job. For those that have played baseball, remember the over zealous parents that scream at a young umpire at youth baseball games…smh 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeotechDuck No. 15 Share Posted October 30 (edited) I am not even sure what to say. I have watched a ton of BIG games and the officiating is flat out embarrassing. There have been tons of missed calls that have likely significantly impacted the outcome of games. I honestly think it is much worse than the Pac-12. As a posted mentioned about, Oregon is taking care of business, so fortunately they have not been a victim yet. Edited October 30 by GeotechDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck Moderator No. 16 Share Posted October 30 Officiating has succumbed to what has taken college football to the road it now travels. It has become more than anything else, Entertainment, more like real life reality shows like "Survivor" than it was 40 years ago. The NCAA could have prevented a lot of this if they had dealt with growing contempt of the student athletes for everybody else getting rich at their expense, but the NCAA punted. Now it's NIL and the Transfer Portal. Officiating has always been problematic, and the technology now exacerbates it. Big screens in the stadiums, slow motion video on TV. As much as fans don't like the interruption of play by a video review, it's Must See TV. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Ducky No. 17 Share Posted October 30 (edited) The few games I have seen outside of Duck games were all influenced by horrible officiating influencing the outcome of games. Miami won 2 games because of blown calls and usuc has lost 2 because of bad calls, which I love, in games I’ve watched. As far as Oregon games we’ve seen, there are more holding penalties not called than I have ever seen. I thought pack 12 officials were bad but big ten officiating is beyond horrible. Some look like they don’t know the rules. So far we’ve managed to avoid a loss this season because of bad officiating but we are not done yet. Even with instant replay they seldom get it wright. I am dreading to see what will happen in the big house on Saturday. I know my 6 year old grandson could do a better job. Edited October 30 by Just Ducky 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
