I've been been thinking about making this post for weeks but tried to dissuade myself because I felt this would just come across as belly aching. However, the trends, IMO, seem to be worse than ever. Posting that BT crews are bad is hardly breaking news as they have been well known to have the worst officiating in CFB and MBB for decades. However, the last few years following expansion, and especially this year, it does seem to be getting worse, but purposefully bad.
Many have posted about really awful calls in Nebraska games since we entered the conference, and a bias against us. That is accurate, I believe. However, that isn't what this is about. I see a bias against all recents additions and incorrect calls mostly going in favor of the traditional members of the conference. The Oregon-OSU matchup last week being a classic example. There were several shaky calls, but the Oregon interception on the first drive was a hum dinger. Easy call to make, and really easy to to correct if it had been reviewed, plus the back judge that ran up to emphatically call that in OSU's favor was in the worst position of any official on the field to be making the call as his view of the ball was blocked by the players' bodies for about 75% of the catch "process." If that call was made or corrected properly, it changes the whole tenor of the game and OSU is in position of playing catch up for awhile, if not most of the game. It probability reduced Oregon's win probability, as ESPN likes to say, by 20% at that point.
I could go into PSU-USC, which actually had even worse, and more, bad calls; not to mention dozens of others, but I don't think there is any need.
It has gotten so bad that I've really lost interest in watching CFB for the most part. 20 years ago I recorded and watched 8-10 games a week. These days, maybe 1-2, and I generally avoid Little 10 games other than Nebraska. An I over reacting, or do others see this really disturbing trend?
Many have posted about really awful calls in Nebraska games since we entered the conference, and a bias against us. That is accurate, I believe. However, that isn't what this is about. I see a bias against all recents additions and incorrect calls mostly going in favor of the traditional members of the conference. The Oregon-OSU matchup last week being a classic example. There were several shaky calls, but the Oregon interception on the first drive was a hum dinger. Easy call to make, and really easy to to correct if it had been reviewed, plus the back judge that ran up to emphatically call that in OSU's favor was in the worst position of any official on the field to be making the call as his view of the ball was blocked by the players' bodies for about 75% of the catch "process." If that call was made or corrected properly, it changes the whole tenor of the game and OSU is in position of playing catch up for awhile, if not most of the game. It probability reduced Oregon's win probability, as ESPN likes to say, by 20% at that point.
I could go into PSU-USC, which actually had even worse, and more, bad calls; not to mention dozens of others, but I don't think there is any need.
It has gotten so bad that I've really lost interest in watching CFB for the most part. 20 years ago I recorded and watched 8-10 games a week. These days, maybe 1-2, and I generally avoid Little 10 games other than Nebraska. An I over reacting, or do others see this really disturbing trend?
