One of the officials for the TCU game is an OSU Alum
Hopefully he doesn't job calls and pat TCU players' butts.
December 30th, 2022 at 9:06 PM ^
Win the game!
I mean the whole SEC crew could be showing bias, getting TCU to win to matchup with Georgia.
Nah these guys have pride, and 200 cameras on them.
December 30th, 2022 at 10:50 PM ^
Pride and 200 cameras also accompanied the 2016 OSU ref crew...
December 30th, 2022 at 9:08 PM ^
The ref can't be too big of a homer if OSU didn't already get the ref assigned to the Peach Bowl crew.
December 30th, 2022 at 9:11 PM ^
The fix is in. We're screwed.
December 30th, 2022 at 9:19 PM ^
“Alum” is not a word.
December 30th, 2022 at 9:37 PM ^
Meh, alum is actually a word, just not the way OP used it, of course. A nit pick, I know. Forgive me.
December 30th, 2022 at 9:40 PM ^
False. From Wikipedia.
December 30th, 2022 at 9:53 PM ^
You know what is not a word? brax
December 30th, 2022 at 9:19 PM ^
The solution: beat them so bad a few calls don't matter.
December 30th, 2022 at 9:20 PM ^
Well then he should be calling everything U of Ms way so they can get revenge in the rematch.
December 30th, 2022 at 9:34 PM ^
Well, that's a shame.
December 30th, 2022 at 9:36 PM ^
So I guess he's an alum. I'm. . . concerned, but it could be worse.
Mrs. dragonchild went to OSU, Fisher at that. I'd been on campus many times. All in all, the college-educated of Columbus never struck me as made of any worse stuff than the folks I met at Michigan. In my experience, it's the fans that never attended the school of the program they root for that are the most toxic.
I'd still rather not have an OSU guy officiating for even the appearance of impropriety, but this is a distinction worth pointing out. I don't remember reading anywhere that the 2016 clowns were alumni. Just that they were "fans". One of them owned some hole-in-the-wall drive-thru, and the others. . . officiating was the only thing they were publicly proud of. Way too proud of.
Thing is, the officiating could be total garbage even without this, because NCAA. But that's just a status quo every college team has to deal with.
December 30th, 2022 at 9:40 PM ^
Soccer, with regard to gambling, is the most corrupt sport and even they go the extra mile to avoid these optics. Either this ref allows his bias to compromise him or his attempts to mitigate his bias compromise him. Such bullshit.
December 30th, 2022 at 9:45 PM ^
Next you will tell me a Spartan is going to be in the replay booth
December 30th, 2022 at 10:21 PM ^
Spartan Bob most likely
December 31st, 2022 at 8:27 AM ^
Nope, the tunnel
December 30th, 2022 at 9:47 PM ^
Stop. Our fan base looks whiny when we do this.
if you think there’s a conspiracy, do you really think the NCAA would rather have TCU in the finals over Michigan from a $$$ perspective?
December 30th, 2022 at 10:17 PM ^
It’s not a conspiracy. It’s just stupid to put an official on this game who has Michigan hate in his blood.
December 30th, 2022 at 10:21 PM ^
I know many won't believe this, but from my experience, more Ohio State alumni do not care about football (in the least) versus those that do.
Same for other schools.
And even among OSU alumni that do care about football, most of them aren't cheaters. They aren't overly invested in the result.
Net: it is probable that Chris Garner has zero "Michigan hate in his blood."
December 30th, 2022 at 10:44 PM ^
How many of those alumni don’t care about football and are football refs for their secondary job?
December 30th, 2022 at 11:04 PM ^
You don't become a football official if you don't care about football.
December 31st, 2022 at 12:51 AM ^
Larry Page is a UM grad, so you probably think he gives Ohio people worse search results, right? Idiot.
December 30th, 2022 at 9:57 PM ^
It will be fine.
The vast majority of alums of all schools don't care that much about the results of football games --- an official who reached this level of the sport deserves the benefit of the doubt on that front too.
December 30th, 2022 at 10:06 PM ^
OK, so, FWIW:
Dan Capron, the lead official who mugged the 2016 UM-OSU game along the way, WENT FROM FIRED BY THE B1G (!!!!) TO OFFICIATING THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP, and then publicly admitted to mugging that game as well!
https://www.purdueexponent.org/sports/article_f22a455e-1bc6-504f-957d-8…
"During the course of the game, these officials did not officiate well enough to meet Big Ten standards," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said in a statement. "Therefore, they will forfeit future officiating assignments."
The eight-man officiating crew had four officials that are listed on the Big Ten’s staff. They are referee Daniel Capron, linesman Steve Beckman, back judge Scott Buchanan and side judge Don Swanson.
https://www.dawgnation.com/football/tyler-simmons-refs-admit-blown-call…
It was a play that might’ve cost UGA the 2017 national championship. And Dan Capron, who is retiring as a longtime Big Ten referee, admitted that his crew blew the big call that helped Alabama rally to defeat UGA for the national title, in an interview with the Chicago Tribune’s Teddy Greenstein.
Note the year -- 2017. The NCAA had him officiate the National Championship the very same season he was under scrutiny for fixing The Game!
Now, I don't think this situation and 2016 are apples and apples, so TBH I actually kind of share your "it'll be fine" sentiment, but for the love of pants! "We should trust the people in charge of things because that means they are good at what they do" is childish and needs to stop in the face of years of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
December 30th, 2022 at 10:17 PM ^
Your issue as regards Carpon is with Big Ten leadership, NOT Chris Garner or whoever it is that assigned him to tomorrow's game.
It's Big Ten's leadership to hold Big Ten referees accountable. Delany never really did this --- that is admittedly HIS fault. Your complaint about Carpon is frankly 100% completely irrelevant as regards tomorrow.
As for Garner, he refereed a NYD 6 Bowl game last year.
And per the article where the referees are listed: "A note of full disclosure. Football Zebras did receive a request to delay the posting of the assignments from bowl leadership in order to allow time to first inform participating schools."
I read that as meaning ---- Michigan knew about Garner referring the game well before the ref crew announcements were released to the general public. Michigan might have even had a chance to request a different crew. There are 4 other SEC crews working Bowl games, not to mention ACC/Pac-12/non-Power 5 conference crews. There are many other crews that could have been switched to this game.
I know, I know, people like conspiracy theories --- but nobody has even asked the question "is this really an issue, given that (1) this has known about this for at least 19 days (the article was published 6 days prior to the first Bowl game kicked, which would have been 11-December), (2) there's no evidence anybody in Schembechler Hall is concerned, and (3) nobody else would know about this even now had Chris Balas not been bored earlier today and started LinkedIn searching referees?"
December 30th, 2022 at 10:30 PM ^
Don't you have some PSU board to go haunt?
December 30th, 2022 at 10:41 PM ^
This thread reminds me of the absurd threads one would see on PSU/BWI boards circa 2005 after the Mario Manningham game.
I'm rooting for Michigan tomorrow. I'll miss the game because I'll be on an airplane flying to LA (hopefully, it's Southwest!). But I find this thread even more absurd than those old PSU threads - this one is preemptively (!!!) complaining about a referee.
December 30th, 2022 at 11:19 PM ^
Well after there would be no remedy so a Michigan protest may remove possible issues.
UM/Neb Alamo Bowl 2005. I mean why even play the damn game. What's replay review?
It's only the culmination of an undefeated season and tremendous hard work by a lot of people within the rules.
December 31st, 2022 at 1:05 AM ^
Nobody cares about your PSU memories or who you are rooting for tomorrow.
PSU shouldn't even have a football team right now.
And if it's absurd here, go away.
I really wish I could mute and disappear users...
December 30th, 2022 at 11:10 PM ^
Your issue as regards Carpon is with Big Ten leadership, NOT Chris Garner or whoever it is that assigned him to tomorrow's game.
Ha! No, my issue is with you.
an official who reached this level of the sport deserves the benefit of the doubt
This level of staggering idiocy goes beyond sports. It's a cult mentality, dangerous to society itself. Now, it's benign (albeit comical) when Unquestionable Big Authority Daddy happens to be the NCAA -- a nakedly corrupt institution that just got its ass spanked in court -- but generally speaking, this is the kind of blind follow-the-leader crap that has ruined nations when run amok. And I mean, while the stakes here are trivial, there isn't even a cult of personality to pull wool over your eyes. You're worshiping authority that's there, just because it's there.
I just said I'm not that concerned about this OSU guy; I mentioned Capron to blow up the notion that the NCAA gives a crap. They happily brought in someone the B1G (!!!) of all conferences saw fit to fire to officiate the effin' natty. But once I stopped laughing, I started getting worried. Blindly giving the NCAA the benefit of the doubt makes me wonder what sorts of sleazebags you're letting into your life, or how easily a politician could convince you to commit evils "for glory and country".
December 30th, 2022 at 11:19 PM ^
Do you actually know any of that to be true? I bet not So, I can play too
it’s only reasonable to assume that our AD, a former player, objected like hell. However, the NCAA told him to screw off This can only be because they wanted an OSU-biased ref to control the line play. Thus, using your own assumptions, our concern has to be valid
Now, to be clear, I have no idea if what I posted is true Just, Like. You.
December 30th, 2022 at 10:00 PM ^
Is there a U-M alumnus (or alumna) on the officiating crew for Georgia Ohio State?
Just curious.
December 31st, 2022 at 8:49 AM ^
Are there any UofM alums who officiate anywhere in NCAAF? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of one.
December 30th, 2022 at 10:02 PM ^
I actually think that it makes more sense for the zebra overlords give us the benefit of the whistle. Compelling storylines regardless of our opponent.
December 30th, 2022 at 11:01 PM ^
I’ll tell you this. I’ll be keeping a close eye on that ref. As we all should as well.
December 30th, 2022 at 11:09 PM ^
And our AD is doing something, right?
/s
December 31st, 2022 at 12:11 AM ^
Warde is bored. Or eating. Having spoken to him a number of times…let’s just say he lacks confidence and may have skipped a few classes…
December 31st, 2022 at 12:00 AM ^
But of course he is an osu alum.
December 31st, 2022 at 12:24 AM ^
Had no idea what a center judge was/did. This is what I found.
"The center judge's responsibilities will include spotting the football, marking off penalties and assisting the head referee and umpire with penalties in the trenches and backfield."
December 31st, 2022 at 1:13 AM ^
I bet Michigan will have some holding penalties tomorrow called against them (either more than TCU or at key times that are momentum changing or negate a big play), and some of the spots will be questionably short for Michigan, or generous for TCU.
I will be pleasantly surprised if it doesn't happen, but there are definitely subtle ways refs can influence a game.
December 31st, 2022 at 3:01 AM ^
Shouldn't the crews be from the ACC or PAC12? Since they have no teams in the playoffs. NCAA nah, let's put a crew from a conference that is in the playoffs so we can determine the easiest opponent for the championship.
December 31st, 2022 at 7:34 AM ^
This is pretty asinine to think one official is going to risk his livelihood just to job UM. Honestly, don’t think it’s going to matter. You guys should win pretty handily. Just pray you don’t get ACC refs if you face UGA in the final. The southerners stick together (2019 Clemson fumble game).
December 31st, 2022 at 8:52 AM ^
It’s not his livelihood. He has a full time job.
this guy was passionate enough about college football to pursue officiating as a major hobby. He graduated from a school that has intense hatred of one of the schools playing. How can he possibly be objective? Even if he tries really hard?
December 31st, 2022 at 9:47 AM ^
Well there’s no way to convince you that it’s possible to be objective since you’ve made up your mind, but I can assure you that it’s 100% possible for him to be objective. It’s called being a professional. Hell, if anything I’d be making calls for UM to get a possible rematch or playing UGA, because TCU sure as hell ain’t beating UGA.
December 31st, 2022 at 12:03 PM ^
You mean like did not happen in the two big UM/OSU screw jobs of most recent infamy. What exactly were the punishments? Gold pants? I belief one of the refs used in one game was banned previously from doing The Game but they put him back in years later anyway.
December 31st, 2022 at 7:58 AM ^
You’d think he’d rescue himself from calling the game. Even if he plans on calling a 100% fair and impartial game, why have that hanging over the game? If he drops a flag that’s even close to iffy, I’m gonna lose my mind.
They have 3 alternates anyway, use one of them.
December 31st, 2022 at 8:22 AM ^
I hope my Surgeon isn't from Ohio
December 31st, 2022 at 9:19 AM ^
I can see it now. Michigan breaks open a big game-changing play. A late flag is thrown by the center judge. The judge declares to the Umpire he was "assisting" that there was "Holding" by a Michigan lineman. He then races over to the Referee he's "assisting", takes over button on the communication system, and declares over the PA.... "Holding on That Team Up North".