Question: Are referees crooked?

[Leeroy]

I doubt it. But, if a story suddenly appears that says the opposite, I wouldn’t be surprised. Our world, including college football, gets stranger every year.

 

[Ole Man Dan]

There is absolutely NO EXCUSE for getting a Review wrong! IMHO, that stinks of corruption...

One of the many instances that I remember was watching LSU get hosed in 2010 at jerdin-hair-dye on an onside kick attempt by awbern. The kicker touched the ball 9-1/2 yards down field. Replay clearly showed this and guess what? Yep, the Replay official gave it to awbern.

The point is that these "biased" calls are more prevalent in that cesspool stadium than at any other venue in all of CFB.

Sorry, but this is more than coincidental, IMHO!

At least it looks that way. Other teams get flagged for doing once the thing Auburn did the whole game.
I always thought they should rename the Field... 'FLAGRANT FIELD'.

 

[FThomas]

I think it is also tougher for referees now because there are so many camera angles on the field compared to the past that we see every mistake and every missed holding, etc. we all see them in slow motion and wonder how they missed the calls. I figure that with more and more technology the refereeing aspect will also evolve due to the missed calls.

 

[mdb-tpet]

If you're going to even insinuate referees are crooked, you better bring some actual hard evidence. Sure, there are some really, really odd/terrible no calls, like tackling our receivers without even looking back at the ball from this weekend, but that's not obviously crooked, that's no good/pathetic officiating which should be called and then reviewed if it's not a good call. Didn't Gary D. or someone say officials should make the call on a fumble even if it's probably not so it can be reviewed, and this would be a similar case of calling pass interference to limit the mugging of receivers early. If you're willing to do some actual homework on a particular official and group of officials to find a pattern, then you might start to make your case instead of throwing accusations at the wall to see what sticks.

I would love to see a breakdown of officials and their calls/no calls for a season to see if there is a recognizable pattern, but even then, even a moderately smart person would only affect a handful of games a year to save from being caught. I'm quite sure Coach Saban has somebody analyzing SEC officials, or at least he should be.

And for the record, with the NIL deals allowed now, I expect to see sports betting and NIL deals getting intertwined, with some players affecting games in the future. I hope to be wrong, but money always finds a way.

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

If you're going to even insinuate referees are crooked, you better bring some actual hard evidence.

Where there is smoke, there is fire. So are you saying that if you can't actually see the fire, it doesn't exist? Proving anything like that is difficult because it would be done in such a manner to keep it from being detected. They probably wouldn't want to be taxed on this "income", so it really has to be done in the most untraceable way possible. (Pat Dye was good at that, by the way.)

And for the record, with the NIL deals allowed now, I expect to see sports betting and NIL deals getting intertwined, with some players affecting games in the future. I hope to be wrong, but money always finds a way.

There is certainly a greater potential for this to happen now...

 

[Bama9001]

Not all of them. Others are just very, very, very, very poorly prepared for the job they've been given. The majority probably do the best job they can do with the preparation they've had.

 

[Padreruf]

I have known one CFB D-1 football official. He was also the President of a smaller university and a quality person all the way around. We had several discussions about officiating and he helped me see how really difficult it is, with the speed, angles, etc. They are often too close to the action to fully see what is going on...

That being said, there is no excuse for not have reviews and policies to enhance development and performance.

 

[Crimson1967]

My son wrestled in high school. One time we were at a meet and I was watching a match (not involving him but a teammate). A coach from another school was standing near me and said “That ref isn’t out to screw you. He just sucks”.

 

[Tidewater]

Here are two examples.
Auburn-LSU 2006 in that crappy little stadium.

LSU receiver is about to catch a ball. Gilbert says to himself, "Well, I've been burned. I may as well interfere so this dude does not get any yards after the catch." Clearly interference. Except, the refs rule, after discussion that the ball was eventually tipped, so the interference did not matter. If that was the rule, then on every play, every DB would simply tackle every eligible receiver when the ball gets thrown and then tip the ball eventually so the interference did not matter. That is simply not the rule, but in that crappy little stadium, the flag got waved off. I do not think the refs were paid off. They just made a serious mistake, even after having a discussion on the field.

Next, the reason why we have replay:
Oklahoma vs Oregon. Oregon makes on insides kick. Oklahoma player recovers. Refs indicate that Oregon recovered, even thiough an Oklahoma play has the ball in his hands.

I do not think the refs were paid off. They just made a mistake. I'm not sure why they did not see the Oklahoma player with the ball, and I'm not sure how they ruled that Oregon had recovered, but they made a mistake.

 

[twofbyc]

I have known one CFB D-1 football official. He was also the President of a smaller university and a quality person all the way around. We had several discussions about officiating and he helped me see how really difficult it is, with the speed, angles, etc. They are often too close to the action to fully see what is going on...

That being said, there is no excuse for not have reviews and policies to enhance development and performance.

And the reason it is not being done - who knows?- is only fueling the corruption argument. They know how to eliminate all of this but they choose not to, and their reasoning only fuels the fire. Does “human element “ mean you won’t relinquish your ultimate control of the game? Say you’ll tolerate gross incompetence and likely corruption without saying you’ll tolerate gross incompetence and likely corruption.

 

[twofbyc]

Anyone who thinks there is absolutely no possibility of corruption among officials, with all of the money involved in cfb now, and all of the people involved, probably think OJ was innocent. They definitely exist in another “reality”.
I am most definitely not saying all officials are corrupt although I’m sure some would like to see me in that light; I just do.not.buy., for one second, that all of the bad/missed calls we see week after week after week after week are due to incompetence that can’t be corrected. It can be corrected but that’s not happening; why not? Because it will make the game too long? Because it removes the “human element”??? That last is a smokescreen for corruption.
Most humans (not all, but most), when offered large sums of money to do things that are, while illegal, would be almost impossible to get caught at if you hid the money(easy to do), would take the money. That’s just human nature; I know there are folks on here who disagree and think that people in general are basically good. But even the good make bad decisions sometimes and large sums of money are likely the greatest of temptations.
This could all be fixed in 1-2 seasons; it won’t be, and I’ll believe what I believe until I see proof to the contrary.

 

[mdb-tpet]

Anyone who thinks there is absolutely no possibility of corruption among officials, with all of the money involved in cfb now, and all of the people involved, probably think OJ was innocent. They definitely exist in another “reality”.
I am most definitely not saying all officials are corrupt although I’m sure some would like to see me in that light;

There may be corruption at many levels if CF, but we have no idea. That's different than asking the wrong question "are referees crooked?", which is basically pasting all referees as on the take. Nobody here knows, nor has anybody here posted any real digging to link serially bad/opportunistic officiating to any official or specific group of officials/replay booths. Is there someone above the officials pulling the strings? I have no idea. But again, bring some real evidence we can discuss. A while ago a nice post showed how Alabama was clearly not getting any holding calls. That was some good work. Possibly someone/group with some free time can rewatch games and grade the actual referees and calls vs. the spread to see if there's an actual trend.

 

[Al A Bama]

Should the question be: Are referees crooked or blind or just incompetent?

I’ve known of incompetent teachers, lawyers, doctors, accountants, et al. So, I’m sure there have to be incompetent referees.

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

Should the question be: Are referees crooked or blind or just incompetent?

I’ve known of incompetent teachers, lawyers, doctors, accountants, et al. So, I’m sure there have to be incompetent referees.

Well, if it weren't for bad doctors, there would be no such thing as good doctors...

 

[Krymsonman]

I don't know if corrupt is the right word, but officials do seem to get warped brains when doing BAMA games. It's as if they have already decided that BAMA is so good they don't need the benefit of calls. This is very true down at the Barn, and I was very surprised that we got those two holding calls, and they picked up the flag on that presumed facemask. Of course, they ignored the mugging of our receivers the entire game.

 

[bamafaninbham]

All we have to do is look at the difference in how well NFL refs call a game compared to SEC. OK. There is no comparison. Period. NFL refs make mistakes of course. But nothing close to what the SEC guys screw up. They won't let a team do what Auburn does everygame on defense, by holding and interfering with receivers. NFL guys would throw the flag everytime there was a blatant DPI. Most barn games they don't call DPI but once or twice, if at all. The chasm is Grand Canyon wide. So why is that. NFL is full time job. SEC, and all of college as far as I know, is weekend warriors.

 

[JDCrimson]

In a high school basketball game while shooting FTs, the ref handed me the ball and said "I betcha 20 bucks you don't make both of these FTs." I made them and found him after the game and made him pay me.

 

[81usaf92]

i say rules and tv more so than refs

 

[Ledsteplin]

Maybe the SEC should go back to the Merit system, rather than the Crew system of officiating. Seems it's gone downhill since Kramer switched to Crew.

 

[CajunCrimson]

Just 5 well timed DPI and Holding Calls can create a 15-35 point swing in any competitive game.