Bloomberg article about ref bias
I found this article interesting:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-12-01/do-college-football-…
I just skimmed it since I'm at work but they did some research on frequency of penalties based on certain bias factors and found that programs more likely to make the playoff tend to benefit to some extent, potentially due to conflicts of interest between the refs wanting to please their employer, i.e., the conference, and the conference making more money by teams making the playoff.
One topic this article doesn't talk about is the corrupt assignment of officials specifically to this year's M-OSU game (two were known OSU fans, one previously banned from reffing the 2006 game for fear of bias). If enough of us email them, I'm curious if they would consider a follow-up article to give the issue more publicity. I'm not trying to perpetuate the discussion on this issue to complain about our loss. I'm trying to (1) increase Michigan's likelihood of making the playoffs this year and (2) decrease the likelihood of reffing bias in the future, especially since we more than usual are on the short end of it.
December 1st, 2016 at 10:56 AM ^
This will go well.
December 1st, 2016 at 12:10 PM ^
in your avatar?
December 1st, 2016 at 11:13 AM ^
This was even worse than I thought.
And I thought it was a complete fraud.
December 1st, 2016 at 1:07 PM ^
That video was amazing. That's the first time I've ever seen anything pivoted that came from Ace Williams.
December 1st, 2016 at 4:32 PM ^
December 1st, 2016 at 11:10 AM ^
In a box, take a shit in that box, and send it to the B10.
December 1st, 2016 at 11:26 AM ^
I called Jim Delany yesterday. He won't take calls from the public, so I was put through to his secretary, Barbara. She must have left for the day, so I left her a voice mail message. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this. I just want them to know that we know and we are not okay with it.
Go Blue!
December 1st, 2016 at 12:03 PM ^
Who the fuck does that guy think he is?
Oh, that's right, the same guy that announces his retirement 14 years in advance because he thinks he's so star spangled awesome that the Big 10 can't live without him.
Asshole.
December 1st, 2016 at 12:39 PM ^
Can we get his number? I want to call him too. I have a few things I'd like to discuss with his voicemail. Seriously. Give me the number, please.
December 1st, 2016 at 1:15 PM ^
December 1st, 2016 at 4:19 PM ^
Got his extension too. 20101. Leave him a message. Inundate his ass.
December 1st, 2016 at 4:19 PM ^
Got his extension too. 20101. Leave him a message. Inundate his ass.
December 1st, 2016 at 1:06 PM ^
If you go to the Big Ten website, there's no contact us page or any direct contact links for any of the staff members or anything asking for feedback . If you click on Jim Delany, all you get is a big shameless bio piece on him. Their website collectively sends the message like you see on some truck bumper stickers: "Don't like my driving <officiating>? Call 1-800-EATSHIT".
December 1st, 2016 at 11:11 AM ^
Plus one cuz I can't do more. Might even be even better than your avatar, which is saying something. Hope this gets sent into league if hasn't been already. Will definitely be sharing with my friends.
December 1st, 2016 at 11:51 AM ^
Share the video and the letter to the B10 with them via Facebook messenger. I'm sure it's just an intern monitoring that, but it could be cathartic for someone to do if they feel so inclined.
December 1st, 2016 at 11:13 AM ^
This is amazing
Edit: Forward to Bloomberg. If they're interested, should be more than enough to run with.
December 1st, 2016 at 11:12 AM ^
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December 1st, 2016 at 11:20 AM ^
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December 1st, 2016 at 11:26 AM ^
Didn't even get to Isaiah Prince who I believe just got beat for another sack.
December 1st, 2016 at 11:28 AM ^
In reference to the pat on the butt on Weber, I see this picture and GIF a lot. But if you remember Weber was pushed out of bounds and the fans and Weber were clamoring for a late hit penalty. Weber clearly says something as he's walking back to the sideline so it's possible the ref was just saying "hey I'm not gonna call that but go get 'em" kinda thing. I think the refs sucked and we paid the price but I'm not sure this specific play and incident should be at the forefront of the argument.
Edit: I was responding to the still image of the video. The video itself is shocking honestly.
December 1st, 2016 at 11:40 AM ^
is that the Ref was looking RIGHT AT WEBBER when it happened.
December 1st, 2016 at 2:32 PM ^
to see if Harbaugh was celebrating too much. Webber was only helping the ref get a better view of the Michigan sideline.
December 1st, 2016 at 11:55 AM ^
Not to be a negative Nancy, but this was put together by Chat Sports, in case you didn't realize this. I guess technically they aren't reporting anything as a source, so maybe OK?
December 1st, 2016 at 11:57 AM ^
Isn't a source for (breaking) news, or really any news. However, this is not news. This is a video compilation of actual things that happened and are verified by anyone with eyes.
December 1st, 2016 at 12:03 PM ^
It's now added to my signature.
December 1st, 2016 at 12:18 PM ^
...the CFP committee would look at that video and equate the "loss" to OSU to being as good as Clemson or Washington's best win.
December 1st, 2016 at 1:31 PM ^
Exactly.
That's what I want from the CFP committee . . . "jury nullification."
I want them to say: "The ref's didn't (wouldn't) get it right, but we can. If Ohio State is #2 then so is Michigan. #2A and #2B. Michigan should go to the CFP. Period."
December 1st, 2016 at 12:32 PM ^
and just the tip of the iceberg. I lost count of the number of illegal procedure calls against OSU not called as well as holding. The officiating was some of the most home town bias I have ever seen.
December 1st, 2016 at 3:36 PM ^
Time for a new target. We need someone with Don Canham's gravitas to pay a visit to Big Ten HQ.
December 1st, 2016 at 4:58 PM ^
from me. OMG that video!
December 1st, 2016 at 7:44 PM ^
December 1st, 2016 at 8:29 PM ^
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December 1st, 2016 at 11:00 AM ^
"Protected flagships in the Big Ten did especially well with officials, the research shows. Ohio State, the conference’s most competitive flagship team in the years Brymer studied, was 14 percent less likely to be dinged for a discretionary foul than, say, Purdue, a non-flagship team with little chance of contending for a national title. The Buckeyes fared even better with refs in 2014, when it made the first-ever formal playoff and won the national championship on Jan. 12, 2015."
December 1st, 2016 at 11:23 AM ^
OSU was flagged that season for a grand total of two offensive holding penalties. ALL SEASON. Evidence, of course, that OSU plays extra fair!
(I do wonder, though, what the overall penalty stats say about Michigan. We're certainly a flagship of the Big Ten - it's just whether we are a "protected flagship".)
December 1st, 2016 at 11:47 AM ^
is simply this: better teams don't have as many penalties, and that's part of what makes them better is the discipline to stay away from them.
but yeah, ohio with 2 holding penalties.
December 1st, 2016 at 11:53 AM ^
Still commit penalties, especially when playing another great team. The problem with this whole thing is that we assumed your point was always correct because of the players and scheme and discipline. Now we suspect it's because of ref bias.
December 1st, 2016 at 12:23 PM ^
but thet article mentions a 14% difference - so maybe it's 7% look the other way, and 7% better discipline?
December 1st, 2016 at 12:39 PM ^
Ohio State actually went TWO YEARS, yes, TWO YEARS (October 2013 to October 2015) without a offensive holding call in BIG TEN play.
In other words, in the 2014 season they had ZERO holds called against them in B1G games.
Really? F$%king unbelievable.
P.S.: CAUTION, very ugly video embedded in that link above.
December 1st, 2016 at 2:07 PM ^
December 1st, 2016 at 11:01 AM ^
Fire all the refs, hire competent ones, pay well, make it a job worth having instead of a part time job.
I know someone somewhere showed that compensation has little to do with quality of work, and I agree with this to an extent. But raising the bar for entering the activity will and making it a competitive career will raise that bar.
Officiating has been embarassingly bad and something that has been SUSPICIOUSLY left in the dust for many years. We can land a robot car on mars but we cant invent a football that can tell you whether or not it got a first down/touchdown?
I mean, why do we even have league refs? It's college football, just get a damn college football reffing committee. They ref all college games. There isnt B1G refs, or SEC refs. Then do backgrounds, no biased reffing, no homestate reffing. Do background checks. Do it all.
This is an extremely and outrageously profitiable industry to be ignoring such a weak link.
December 1st, 2016 at 11:12 AM ^
College football is big time now. It's upgraded the facilities, the coaches, the training, the TV and on-line exposure . . . it's time to upgrade the officiating.
December 1st, 2016 at 11:17 AM ^
December 1st, 2016 at 11:37 AM ^
I agree. I mean, why not have full time refs that can hone in and get good at it. They can do football games on Saturdays or whenver needed and whatever other sports they are trained in for during the week days. Nothing against old men and I respect my elders but comeon. Get some young guys in there that can actually see with 20/20 vision and that can run up and down the field with these young guys. Same thing on the basketball court. 60 year olds with lack of oxygen to the brain fucking up game after game. Makes me so damn annoyed. These sports are full of these old 50 to 60 year olds that have been yelled at for years, can barely stand up straight and have big wide asses on them bigger than a washing machine. Why are them guys even out there? Because they know the rules and have experience? Give me a fucking break. Change the system. This is stupid and bullshit. It'll make the sport better and not piss people off. More fun for everyone means more fans. Everyone wants to see fair and good offciating. We don't have that.
December 1st, 2016 at 11:16 AM ^
December 1st, 2016 at 11:16 AM ^
There is a book called Scorecasting which takes a Freakonomics type approach to analyzing sports - i.e. do hotstreaks really exist? What about momentum? etc. One of the major points the books makes is that across all sports the home team clearly has an advantage if you look at historical winning percentages, but if you analyze actual performance, people perform just as well on the road and they do at home. They ultimately showed that the entire home vs away phenomenon is actually due to ref bias, not player performance. I would not be suprised if this held true to some extent in a Big name school vs Small name school - i.e. the ref is subconsciously bias to think that the historical power is less likely to make a mistake.
December 1st, 2016 at 11:52 AM ^
Totally agree. I'm not sure the refs meant to be bias (although I wouldn't be surprised). I do think they were very aware of the crowd reaction if the final play was reversed (i.e. they may not have made it home alive). If the game was in A2, they would have been more apt to make some of those calls.
December 1st, 2016 at 11:56 AM ^
I firmly believe that the homefield advantage is largely, or all, due to referee bias. Referees feel the energy in the stadium around them, and this can affect the way they see things. If you don't believe bias can affect your vision, go take a poll of OSU fans and Michigan fans, and ask whether Barrett made the first down.
There is no doubt in my mind that the referees of The Game believe in their hearts that they called that game fair. The problem, at least for me, is that they allowed whatever biases they had to create an imbalance in the full set of close calls. The penalty yards differential is key, because it filters out the subjective eye test.
After the Shawn Crable late hit, I have always assumed we were playing against the refs when in Columbus. I had no idea how bad it could get, until I saw that damn man spot that damn ball across that damn 15-yard line.
December 1st, 2016 at 1:47 PM ^
SI did an extensive and comprehensive study of this a number of years back, from the other direction: Why does homefield advantage exist? (And it does exist.)
The result of their study, which ruled out numerous causes, was what you stated above: Referee bias (or in some cases, referee intimidation).
It's the ref's that cause home field advantage.
They get into the buzz of the home crowd or are intimidated by it. They are human. It's damn exciting to cause 100,000 people that are 10 yards away from you to roar to Richter scale levels. It's a head rush, just like it is for the athletes. Conversely, it's very uncomfortable to piss off 100,000 people that are 10 yards away from you. Most people don't like to piss off even one person in a room.
Even if they try to be detached and professional, it does not completely work out that way.