2021 Bad Officiating Thread

[TheCatInTheHat]

Flipped on the Oregon at Ohio St game, and I had a flashback to our Desert Swarm era game at Illinois where the Big Ten refs essentially apologized to the Illinois fans and the league for "letting" us win the game by missing some alleged excessive roughness penalty or something like that. Lots of other bad calls when we played at Ohio St, Wisconsin, etc. So while the Pac-12 seems to bend over backwards to be "hospitable" to non-conference opponents (TWO offensive PI calls on us against BYU, Kevin Mar?), presumably to overcome its reputation for ineptitude, Big Ten refs know where their bread is buttered and go the other way. That may become a bigger issue to us as the Alliance with the Big Ten generates more home-and-homes with them across the conference. In a two minute period before halftime of the Oregon/OSU game, there was a bogus holding call that negated a huge gain, which would have put the Ducks up 21-7. The next play was an uncalled 50-50 PI, which would have given them a key 15 yards. When the receiver bitched about the ref eating the flag, an Ohio St DB "accidentally" slammed into his shoulder pad while running past him. No unsportsmanlike conduct. And the clock operator kept :01 on the clock to give them a final shot at a pass into the end zone when the clock should have run out. That's a lot of help at a key time in a game. Oregon should have been up 21-7, which changes the complexion of the game. As of this writing, Oregon's up 21-14 in the third. For the record, I despise Oregon and Ohio St about equally, but it would be a good win for the league. Maybe they'll still win. But the respective officiating in the Pac-12 and Big Ten is still an issue.

[EastCoastCat]

Sorry Cat, I’m watching the game as well and I’m not seeing anything egregious going on imo.

If it were the Ducks would have been flagged for a PI on that 4th down pass in the end zone which unfortunately always seems to be called at home.

[TheCatInTheHat]

Just an example of all one-way calls in a key two minute period. It's more the history of it over time, and I'm sure an on-line search would find plenty of commentary along those lines. And I suspect there will be other posts here about college officiating over time.

[azgreg]

Sorry Cat, I’m watching the game as well and I’m not seeing anything egregious going on imo.

If it were the Ducks would have been flagged for a PI on that 4th down pass in the end zone which unfortunately always seems to be called at home.

I'm with you. I haven't seen any problems with the officiating.

[Merkin]

Wow two straight against tOSU, the hold and missed targetting

[Chicat]

These are PAC-12 refs, right?

[azgreg]

Wow two straight against tOSU, the hold and missed targetting

That wasn't targeting.

[wyo-cat]

The OSU guy hooked the OU guy and threw him down. The OU guy got called for holding.

Negated a key gain and even better field position.

[TheCatInTheHat]

I'll concede that the rest of the game wasn't bad at all. I just saw the two mins. before halftime and concluded "here we go again." And, until the Big Ten proves otherwise, I'll stand by my statement that they have a bad history in big non-conference games at their stadia (at least from what I've seen with Pac-10/Pac-12 teams.)

[UAEebs86]

Flipped on the Oregon at Ohio St game, and I had a flashback to our Desert Swarm era game at Illinois where the Big Ten refs essentially apologized to the Illinois fans and the league for "letting" us win the game by missing some alleged excessive roughness penalty or something like that.

I remember that game at Illinois. Lou Tepper bitched about the two questionable calls but forgot to mention the penalty yardage was like 120 for UofA vs 20 for Illinois.

[U.P. Zona Fan]

Haha, didn't matter, OSU lost anyway!!!

That's repaying karma for being gifted a spot in the playoff last year!!!!!

[EastCoastCat]

My friend. That’s an incredibly small sample size we are talking about and the Big 10 usually kicks are asses at their home fields mostly because those Big 10 teams were better.

It’s not like we are talking about the MWC.

And usually they either have neutral refs or refs from the visitors conference like today.

Just not seeing your point I guess.

[Chicat]

The theory here is that Pac12 refs are serving up home cooking for the B1G team?

[Carcassdragger]

Complaining about the officiating and bias is for losers and those who don't understand the culture of officiating. Cat fans do way too much of it.

Just go out and beat your opponent. End of story.

[TheCatInTheHat]

The great thing about this thread is that for anybody who disagrees with the premise, it's remarkably easy to ignore. I believe I understand officiating, as I've done a bit of it, at least in baseball and basketball; it's hard. And I'm almost always silent in Arizona Stadium and McKale when our crowd is up in arms because a call or two didn't go our way; the crowd is often wrong. But, there is a tremendous amount of discussion about controversies in both college and pro football involving targeting, ejections, late holding calls on big plays, and pass interference calls, among other things. It's a part of the game. So, on this football message board, this is a place for that discussion. If the board ops want to shut down football discussion on a football board, I wouldn't understand why, but that's their (and only their) prerogative. Part-time moonlighting college officials are as competent, unbiased, and neutral about keeping their employers happy as they are. And it is virtually universally accepted that key calls (made or unmade) impact the outcome of close games.