Around the Big Ten

[Dr. Strangelove]

I was thinking more about the 70's.....but still color me not too impressed. Just like ND, I see too many push overs. (add North Carolina St, Army, Navy to my above list). In the 70s he routinely played a ranked team 2 times or less in a season (5 times), and if they were ranked in the Top 10....they lost...usually (3-8 against Top 10.......16-10 against ranked opponents).

In the vaunted 80's, he went 20-19-1 against ranked opponents.....much better competition....yet was 5-9 against Top 10. In those 2 decades he was winning over 10 games per season.......usually against crap teams.

Since he's been in the Big10.....he's averaging about 7 wins....and 5 conference wins per season. Yawn......

I'm not saying that he isn't a very good coach, but he made his reputation against average competition, and with tremendous talent......and he most certainly SHOULD NOT have been named on a League Championship trophy in a league he has spent less than half of his career in, and certainly not dominated like some thought he would.

Compare Joe's Record against ranked teams in the 70's and 80's to Michigan and OSU over the same period. Is it worse or better?

All I know is that for all we lionize Bo and Woody, OSU and Michigan stunk it up in bowl games during the 70's. Michigan didn't win a single bowl all decade and OSU only beat USC once and Colorado once, getting upset by supposedly inferior teams and getting destroyed a couple times as well.

I would be surprised if Penn State's record in the 80's against ranked teams was worse than either Michigan or OSU. Sure, they played Navy, Rutgers, etc. but Northwestern was one of the worst programs in college football in those decades (whereas Navy was solid under George Welsh and Army solid under Jim Young) and Minnesota was consistently bad too. Like I said, nearly every one of the Little 8 was garbage throughout the 70's.

[entropy]

the quality of BIG Refs...



Notice where the ball is under #50 and how the ref is coming in signaling a call

[entropy]

again, notice where the ball is located, and what the ref is doing..

[entropy]

and finally, see the final signal by the ref and where the ball is located..

[lineygoblue]

I'm not going to defend them. B1G officials are not having their best year this season. Too many iffy calls, and they seem to be hoping that IR will bail them out.

[Wild Hoss]

I wonder if Hardrick even knew he was lying on top of the ball like a dead walrus?

Oh well...spotty officating didn't save them this time.

[Tom W]

Discusion of the horrible officiating by the B10 is kinda like beating that poor walrus.

[Jeff Buchanan]

There is a series of stills featuring about 10 examples of blatant holding against Michigan offensive Linemen when they played Illinois at mgoblog. Where not talking about, "I'm not sure," we're talking about blatant holds that were ignored.

There is something very wrong with the B1G officiating this season. I have seen some of the most egregious calls that have changed the outcomes of games go down in 2011. Not just against Michigan. It's all over the place.

I'm disturbed that we don't have some method of finding out what is done about this. Some of the secrecy associated with reviewing a ref's calls is understandable from a security perspective but the lack of public accountability is hurting the game more than the protection of the refs is helping anything.

Can you add to this, Lines?

[hack]

Not unique to B10 or football. I once had the thought that if I could sell him on it, I bet I could get a coupla million from a guy like Rasheed Wallace to start up a referee watchdog organisation. Come up with some sorta methodology and train a whole bunch of people to watch games and complete charts. Maybe even rate the quality of the reffing. Expose the problems, but, moreso hope that added scrutiny inspires better performance. Combine it with a campaign to boost refs' pay.

[Jamie H]

And you could name the organization 'Ball Don't Lie".

[lineygoblue]

but the lack of public accountability is hurting the game more than the protection of the refs is helping anything.

I agree some sort of accountability should be given to the fans. I think some sort of an annual "report card" of sorts could be published by the B1G, stating what kind of mistakes were noted, and what sort of action was taken. Names of specific officials wouldn't need to be mentioned, but instances of errors, and corrective action taken, could be noted. They wouldn't have to mention specific games, teams, etc. Just a general report on what they are doing. I don't see any harm in that. But, that's just me.

For now, we just have to take their word for it, that they are reviewing each official's performance after every game, and "weeding out" where it needs to be done.

I've been told by guys who have been trying to crack the ranks of the B1G officials clique, and the training and evaluation process is very difficult. I know guys who have been trying to just get into the lower levels of the NCAA for years, but have had no luck. I think there is still some of the good old boys network in play, where "friends" and "friends-of-friends" have an advantage. They'd rather take 'someone they know' than take a chance on someone completely unknown.

[Jamie H]

Accountability to the fans? What about accountability to the programs? Brady Hoke has yet to receive ANY explanation for the non-TD call in the Iowa game.

It's ridiculous. Officials wonder why fans (and coaches for that matter) hate them? It's stuff like this. Either come out and admit that you fucked up, or explain why you think you didn't. To refuse to even answer the question just reinforces the public perception that the Big Ten officials (especially the replay people) are horrible at their jobs and are more interested in covering their asses than in actually getting the calls right.

[Wild Hoss]

Discusion of the horrible officiating by the B10 is kinda like beating that poor walrus.

Yes, that is beginning to become clear. I always thought you all were sandbagging about it, but the officiating really is worse than the Big 12. Depends on whether there's any bias among crews I suppose...we had some bad experiences with that in our previous league.

I know Wiz has stated that its been difficult to find qualified refs, at least in the WAC, and that their crews were getting older. Its a lot of work, the scheduling is difficult, and the pay isn't that great, so attracting good, new officials isn't easy. We probably don't think about it much, but there is a lot of running involved for some of those guys, and exhaustion unquestionably leads to errors...that will be more pronounced with older guys.

I would think that given the amount of money floating around these games the BCS conferences could afford full-time officiating crews. Or at least 2-3 of them, to work the "big" games.

[lineygoblue]

Brady Hoke has yet to receive ANY explanation for the non-TD call in the Iowa game.

Well, to be fair, we don't know that Hoke has NOT gotten an explanation. My guess is, the only thing that happened, was that he got a call from someone in the commissioner's office stating that they reviewed the call and believe it was called correctly. Hoke really has no recourse beyond that. These things are rarely discussed publicly. Especially when the officiating pooh-bahs believe they got it right.

As an official, you make arbitrary decisions. Its yes or no, not "maybe". The only thing we can hope is that as officials are evaluated, the not-so-good ones will be weeded out.

[Jamie H]

Hoke specifically said he hadn't gotten an explanation last week (Wed or Thurs) and I think he would have said something had that changed.