Officials Spotting of the Ball

I noticed it last night and it’s felt pervasive since the “scandal” broke. 
It’s never crazy in the sense of, like, 3-4 extra yards. But it has felt undeniably consistent. 
Im not a conspiracy theorist in that I think this has been orchestrated in any way, I think Michigan is just getting the Villain treatment. 
 

Be careful who you make the villain. 

Speaking of spotting, did anyone else spot Seth in the crowd?  It was in the third quarter, one of those moving overhead shots coming back from a commercial.  He was in the lower left of the screen.  I pointed to the TV and yelled "hey! That's Seth from MGoBlog!" My ever indulgent wife just looked at me like I was crazy and then said "this is a cult" and then I said "Hey!  Did you read the NYTimes piece?  It is a cult, but one that saves people!"

I spotted Seth standing with the Sklars in the stands during the broadcast. Does that count for anything?

You get an inch advantage for each five star recruit on your roster. "It just means more" is also worth some generous spots and swallowing of the whistle. I believe Cam Goode found that out as he was taken down on a clear missed assignment. 

We Won. 

And yes, it's Michigan vs. Everybody.

Go Blue. 

Could it be a case where the ref is giving a little more due to forward progress?

Herbstreit was actually calling it for the refs. When Thaw muffed the punt he stated (no conjecture) that it was inside the 1/2 yard line. It was entirely NOT based on the replay he'd already seen several times.

This current crop of color commentators just say things to fill space; accuracy and relevance are not factors they seem to consider.

the refs were not great, but they were not great both ways.  Alabama O-Line got away with a lot of holding but so did Michigan (especially with Wallace on that 3rd down play in OT).  They basically let both teams play.

Refs in college football have been horrible at spotting the ball for a looong time. I noticed a couple years ago they finally gave up even trying and have just been spotting it at the nearest full yard mark. You pretty much never see it spotted at a quater or half yard anymore.

This was not the worst case of it I've witnessed. In '97 Nebraska wasn't just protected with the illegal kick and ref shaft job at Missouri. When they played Colorado that season the refs long marked Nebraska and short marked Colorado every damn play. 

I thought this for a second on a Milroe run but it was just that the viewing angle was bad. I think the refs did a good job not influencing the game too much

I didn't notice it that consistently except one egregious one where the Alabama player went out of bounds at the 41 and they spotted it at the 45 for some inexplicable reason.  The rest of the time it was the usual weird spots that all college refs seem to do.

Play that had me scratching my head was Milroe's QB sneak for a first down pretty early on. Not only did he not reach the line to gain, but then the refs didn't even measure for a 1st down. Ball was in the middle of the field, not on the hash, definitely not something you can eyeball. And the refs immediately signal 1st down and move on with the game.

Plain and simple, until the NCAA and the NFL add the equipment necessary to spot the ball correctly every play, ball spotting will never be right and always be susceptible to foul play. Go out and earn it, don't let it come down to a game of inches. Just like the last play. No where near the goal line because of a great tackle on third down and dominating the LOS on 4th down. Take it out of the refs hands when you remove that guessing game. 

Overall I thought the officiating was fine. They missed stuff both ways and deciding to swallow the whistle on holding probably benefits the team with a better bull rush (us) over the team with more of a speed rush (them).

One thing that I haven't seen any explanation of was on the Morris TD. I thought it was pretty clear that the defender had his fingers inside the collar of the shoulder pad, so it should've been a horse collar, no? It was a minimal impact thing, would've made a slightly shorter extra point, but still bugged me.

Please shut up with the conspiracy theory BS. That shit is destroying our culture. They made some bad spots, fine. But not because of a conspiracy. 

i thought it was crappy both ways, to be honest.  but it's always dicey - 99% of the time milroe would've gotten the benefit of the doubt on that scramble to get to 3rd and a half-yard (third quarter?).

In general I thought the officiating was quite good overall. 

If ALA got a couple of favorable spots, MICH benefited from a missed running into the kicker that would have given ALA a first down and possession and the refs did a good job to catch the foot OB on the game-opening interception.

The crew was really solid.  Here's the write up from Football Zebras:

A Rose by any other name...: Six officials today are returning to Pasadena after working last year's Rose Bowl. They are referee Michael Vandervelde, umpire Robert Richeson, head line judge Andy Warner, line judge Keith Garmond, side judge Fulton Carson, and center judge Chris Tallent.


All crew members worked a bowl game last year. In addition to the returning Rose Bowl officials, field judge Gariel DeLeon worked the Citrus Bowl, back judge Daniel Young was in the Sun Bowl, alternate official Tuta Salaam headed the Birmingham Bowl crew, and the replay crew of Mark Marsden and Buddy Gingras worked the Pinstripe Bowl.


Vandervelde was the referee for the XFL Championship Game in May. Richeson, Warner, and DeLeon also worked the XFL in 2023.


The NFL's training and development pipeline -- the Mackie Development Program -- includes 4 of today's officials on its current rosters: Richeson (since 2017), Warner (2023), DeLeon (2020), and Young (2021).


Warner, Carson, and Young were on the Big 12 Championship Game crew in December.

And there are rumors that Mike Vandervelde is in the NFL pipeline. 

This was a good group of refs.

I think the bigger problem is that the game of football is being reduced to 1st & 9.5 instead of 10. 

For the sake of not slowing down the game (due to reviews, etc) they have pretty much all but eliminated measurements at both the college and NFL level. I can recall maye two chain measurements all year in both sports. Granted, I cannot watch every game played but it is down and there was even an article going into the numbers a bit ago. These days they just kinda give it to you if you're close.

So it creates a game that skews even further toward the offense than it naturally does. What does this have to do with bad spotting? It just makes it easier for refs to put their thumb on the scales. I don't necessarily think the refs were jobbing anyone last night but if there were a crooked group in a game, it's now much easier to slowly help or job a team with spotting alone.