https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...-next-game

Big 12 refs have a pretty bad reputation. These calls do sound pretty egregious. But suspending the radio announcers??? Aren't they supposed to be homers? How many announcers DON'T whine about the calls????

ESPN was publicly commenting on the Baylor-OU broadcast how Oklahoma gets away with holding. That's been complained about for years. Texas had a game with Oklahoma St. a few years back that convinced me at least one or two of the refs either had money on the game or had something personal against Charlie Strong. They called an unsportsmanlike on Strong when the ref got in his face and bumped him. They called a phantom fumble recovery by the QB who was 3 yards away from the ball at the time. I've never heard of any mea culpas by the Big 12 ref office and that guy who called the penalty on Charlie Strong is still around.

The problem is they gave out the officials’ IRL names during the tirade. In today’s social media age where you can find out anything about anyone, that’s kinda egging the crazies to harass the officials.

(11-17-2021 10:45 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  The problem is they gave out the officials’ IRL names during the tirade. In today’s social media age where you can find out anything about anyone, that’s kinda egging the crazies to harass the officials.

What is an IRL name? If you mean they said the official's names, is there anything unusual about that? I thought the names of refs were commonly mentioned on football broadcasts. No?

(11-17-2021 11:19 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(11-17-2021 10:45 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  The problem is they gave out the officials’ IRL names during the tirade. In today’s social media age where you can find out anything about anyone, that’s kinda egging the crazies to harass the officials.

What is an IRL name? If you mean they said the official's names, is there anything unusual about that? I thought the names of refs were commonly mentioned on football broadcasts. No?

It’s one thing to say, at the start of the broadcast, “The officials for today’s game are…” and it’s another thing to go on a rant about how the officials have made several awful calls against Texas Tech and then, after getting the listeners angry about those calls, say, “Now I’m going to read the names and positions of every one of these terrible officials…”

Having said that, there seems to be very little accountability for officials making bad calls. A QB who throws 4 INTs in a game is likely to be benched; an official who makes 4 terrible calls in the game rarely if ever faces consequences.

The only instance I know in which an official was actually suspended for bad calls is from a Wazzu-Cal game a few years ago. Wazzu’s kick returner had an excellent return to about midfield, and there was a personal foul on the play against the Bears — but the official cost Wazzu 57 yards of field position by marking the penalty off against Wazzu from the spot of the foul, instead of marking it off against Cal from the end of the run. Article: https://es.pn/36V28AH

Being called out is fine in my book. Very few, if any, jobs performed in the public view are eliminated from public comments. If the officials do/did not understand this at the start of their career surly they do by this point.

And yes part of the problems it the official seem to never be punished. No idea if this is true but if not it should be made more public.

There is not a bigger group of snowflakes (and I hate using that term but it aptly applies here) than officials across any sport, and a big part of the reason they are so universally hated is there is never any accountability when they screw up. They are never publicly reprimanded by bosses, yet if you dare mention calls they obviously botch you get fined/suspended. That double standard makes things worse for everyone.

(11-17-2021 11:26 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(11-17-2021 11:19 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(11-17-2021 10:45 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  The problem is they gave out the officials’ IRL names during the tirade. In today’s social media age where you can find out anything about anyone, that’s kinda egging the crazies to harass the officials.

What is an IRL name? If you mean they said the official's names, is there anything unusual about that? I thought the names of refs were commonly mentioned on football broadcasts. No?

It’s one thing to say, at the start of the broadcast, “The officials for today’s game are…” and it’s another thing to go on a rant about how the officials have made several awful calls against Texas Tech and then, after getting the listeners angry about those calls, say, “Now I’m going to read the names and positions of every one of these terrible officials…”

I get that, but IMO it's not a big deal. It's not like he gave out their addresses or phone numbers.

To me, the Big 12 should have focused on officiating errors, if there were any, and not these broadcasters.

There are so many problem with officiating in general there’s not enough room to list them. High school football is my real passion (as far as football goes) and I generally go to 25-35 high school games a year. It’s no surprise then that I’ve seen some REALLY poorly officiated games (as a neutral fan). I will say that across the board I feel like it’s been getting worse though, and I think a lack of accountability is a big reason for that.

Officials already get grades from the coaches, but I think there needs to be more independent review and actual action taken against refs that are make consistently bad calls. Something else that would go a long way is more transparency, especially in the review process. It was either the AAF or the XFL2.0 that live-streamed the officials during the review process and it was a universal hit. Fans loved seeing the screen the review official was looking at and hearing his thought process and commentary with the head ref in real time. Even when they made a decision that I didn’t agree with, hearing the thought process at least let you know where they were coming from. There is absolutely no reason all that remains in secrecy in the college and pro game.

(11-18-2021 08:28 AM)Gemofthehills Wrote:  Being called out is fine in my book. Very few, if any, jobs performed in the public view are eliminated from public comments. If the officials do/did not understand this at the start of their career surly they do by this point.

And yes part of the problems it the official seem to never be punished. No idea if this is true but if not it should be made more public.

There's certainly the opinion in the Big 12 that the officials never get punished. The people with the most questionable calls are all still around and the head of referees there has been in that position for ages. When even ESPN is joking about it, you've got a problem.

(11-18-2021 08:38 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  There is not a bigger group of snowflakes (and I hate using that term but it aptly applies here) than officials across any sport, and a big part of the reason they are so universally hated is there is never any accountability when they screw up. They are never publicly reprimanded by bosses, yet if you dare mention calls they obviously botch you get fined/suspended. That double standard makes things worse for everyone.

Well NBA tops them all. There were a couple who had personal vendettas against the Rockets and would regularly call technicals on the Rockets, especially Olajuwon (name one other star who would get more than one technical in a decade).

(11-18-2021 08:38 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  There is not a bigger group of snowflakes (and I hate using that term but it aptly applies here) than officials across any sport, and a big part of the reason they are so universally hated is there is never any accountability when they screw up. They are never publicly reprimanded by bosses, yet if you dare mention calls they obviously botch you get fined/suspended. That double standard makes things worse for everyone.

Don't use the term 'snowflake' if you don't like. Just say overly-sensitive or easily-offended.

Officials are paid quite nicely for the games. Calling them out by their names is perfectly acceptable. If you start going out and giving out their home addresses, primary place of employment, email or social media addresses - then that's a different matter altogether.

I also can't figure out why the Big 12 would want Iowa State to win over Texas Tech (what the Tech radio crew believed). If anything, you'd think they would be more pleased with a Texas Tech win because that's the game that might get them to a bowl (if they want to play in one).

For those wanting to hear what was actually said during it (3 separate tweets for the full recording):

That's what they got suspended over? That's dumb.

Why did the one section get vacated?

(11-18-2021 01:16 PM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  That's what they got suspended over? That's dumb.

Why did the one section get vacated?

Students were apparently throwing trash on the field.

People are a little rowdier with Covid. And if they think the referees aren't answerable to anybody, these incidents will happen beyond Tennessee and Texas Tech. Tech has a tradition of throwing tortillas on the field, so trash on the field is not new for them.

They threw stuff on the field. You can't blame officials for telling them to move after that.

I'd like to see some of the calls they were bitching about. The interception actually looked like it might have touched the ground in the brief replay I saw in the first link above (that's what caused the students to throw stuff on the field). I assume there were other calls throughout the game that they were annoyed with? Both teams were called for 5 penalties apiece in the game, which isn't much really.

(11-18-2021 01:19 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  They threw stuff on the field. You can't blame officials for telling them to move after that.

I'd like to see some of the calls they were bitching about. The interception actually looked like it might have touched the ground in the brief replay I saw in the first link above (that's what caused the students to throw stuff on the field). I assume there were other calls throughout the game that they were annoyed with? Both teams were called for 5 penalties apiece in the game, which isn't much really.

Yeah it's kind of hard to judge on that one video right there. Obviously fans of the team that thought they had an interception would be upset by it, but I can definitely see a case made for it being incomplete there (and it's something we see all the time in both pros and college). But that one call leading up to ~6 minutes straight like that seems weird. Definitely must have had more that led to it.

If that was it, the only call they were upset about, then yeah the announcers went a bit too crazy there. If there were a lot more (guessing this is the case) then it's more explainable.

Holding calls, or not making holding calls, in a one-sided way, are common methods an official can influence the outcome of a game. These are judgment calls that frequently lack consistency. Some will choose to overlook the grabbing of face mask violations, ignore some targeting, or calling targeting when the hit is technically not targeting. All of us have seen a school cheated on yardage as the ball is re-set following a play.

Officials can make unintentional mistakes calling penalties. All of them need to be subject to reviews, monitoring, and re-newed training.

In conference play when a championship or particular bowl bid is on the line, it is disgusting to see the favored or bigger named school, given officiating advantages that look so obvious.
It may be the unspoken conspiracy, or one or more officials are trying to please the power sources.