Bye Week topic: SEC Officiating.

[McDad]

Professional Officials are held accountable, evaluated, trained, and have no school bias or prejudice.

Pull a part-timer off the street to call a game is for high school but when it matters and games produce revenue for TV, Vegas, NC, and other sources. IOWs there is too much riding on a part timer or unprofessionally trained Official being able to call a game without a back up. Officials are going to miss calls I get that, but why wait until Tuesday to fix it. A win becomes a loss.

Each official has his own standard and that is just BS. We are not the only team that has been hosed by poor calls. This is more a reflection of the league and bad calls affecting the game's outcome in the first 5 games are up this year big.

I don't understand why we have an official guest host allowing his opinion to count as well. All this guest is doing is validating good and bad calls on the field. Commentators are now questioning calls which should be done. They have tried to fix game length but added more commercials to fill the void.

The call should have never been upheld. The two officials should have gotten together and discussed that play.

I have heard other people mention the lack of officials coming up through the high school ranks.
I agree on the school-affiliated bias even if it is just a perception.

 

[wtmvol]

Would you like to see more plays become reviewable?

The PI against Brazzle was ridiculous. I can appreciate it looked bad in real time but on the replay, especially the slo mo replay, it was obvious the defender lost his footing.

That should be re viewable or auto overturned by the 'booth' officials. right?

They tried to start making PI reviewable in the NFL and it didn't work.

I don't think officiating has gotten worse over the years, and if it has it's because officials have been tasked with seeing more (like targeting). A few decades ago, college refs didn't even have to identify the number of the person they called the flag on, and there was only so much we could complain about, because we were watching in glorious SD and could barely make out the teams. I think if we replayed games from the 20th century in HD and scrutinized each call/no-call, today's refs would come out looking pretty good.

 

[McDad]

Hard to pay them full-time when most will work only 12 days per year.....Some get bowl games or playoff games but that still basically only 2 weeks out of a year. The same with the NFL....and they get several more regular season games and preseason games. I've known and had friends that were college or NFL refs....and they all had good private jobs. Several were attorneys.

NBA and MLB is pretty much every night....and both seasons are long. The flipping NBA goes most of the summer after the season too.

I feel like even though there are only a dozen or so games every year to work, there should be another 8 or 9 months of training.

 

[hog88]

Professional Officials are held accountable, evaluated, trained, and have no school bias or prejudice.

Pull a part-timer off the street to call a game is for high school but when it matters and games produce revenue for TV, Vegas, NC, and other sources. IOWs there is too much riding on a part timer or unprofessionally trained Official being able to call a game without a back up. Officials are going to miss calls I get that, but why wait until Tuesday to fix it. A win becomes a loss.

Each official has his own standard and that is just BS. We are not the only team that has been hosed by poor calls. This is more a reflection of the league and bad calls affecting the game's outcome in the first 5 games are up this year big.

I don't understand why we have an official guest host allowing his opinion to count as well. All this guest is doing is validating good and bad calls on the field. Commentators are now questioning calls which should be done. They have tried to fix game length but added more commercials to fill the void.

The call should have never been upheld. The two officials should have gotten together and discussed that play.

Pretty sure the NFL officials are part time

 

[Dadof2Vols]

Why wouldn't "they" want integrity and things fixed???

I judge people by their actions.

What we see each week is terrible and they appear to be doing nothing so I can only assume they don’t want it fixed and don’t want integrity.

If they are doing something then tell us what they are doing anything besides just apologizing.

Appearance in business will make or break you and they appear to be doing NOTHING.

 

[Dadof2Vols]

I don't know if you want them reviewing every play like that and buzzing in but maybe that's where you allow for each team to get one challenge a game and you keep it if you were right.

I think you do both if you want integrity.

Keep and encourage appropriate booths reviews and then give every coach so many challenges each half that he can challenge any call for.

You can bet that CJH would have challenged Brazwell PI

 

[VolFan_stuck_in_the_901]

Generally, fans of the game are dissatisfied with officiating. It may be recency bias, but it seems like it is not improving. In fact, I think most everyone (fans, coaches, and media) will all agree it is getting worse. The problems are not limited to the SEC or the college game. It looks like this is true in all conferences and in the pro game.

So, what (if anything) can be done? Is it the resolution of cameras which make the bad calls more obvious? Does the modern game simply move too fast for the human eye? Do we need more officials, more cameras, more reviews?

What can be done to minimize the human error of officiating?

If they miss calls that negatively impact a team's playoff chances - and by extension revenue for the conference - feed them to literal sharks

 

[adam.vol]

The NCAA can stop a lot of the nonsense by sticking to a set of rules. The clock changes have been a terrible failure. The targeting has gotten less obvious over time. They don’t make an effort to get the replays correct.

But the biggest thing that needs to change is that coaches, players, and everyone else should stop getting censored so that we can discuss controversy publicly.

Break up the union. Stop contracting exclusively from the good old boys club of amateur referees. They have become untouchable and as such, feel their egos are more important than the problems they create.

 

[volfanhill]

Generally, fans of the game are dissatisfied with officiating. It may be recency bias, but it seems like it is not improving. In fact, I think most everyone (fans, coaches, and media) will all agree it is getting worse. The problems are not limited to the SEC or the college game. It looks like this is true in all conferences and in the pro game.

So, what (if anything) can be done? Is it the resolution of cameras which make the bad calls more obvious? Does the modern game simply move too fast for the human eye? Do we need more officials, more cameras, more reviews?

What can be done to minimize the human error of officiating?

Make it a full time job. Pay them like it's a full time job. Training out of season. Hold them accountable like you would an employee who keeps screwing up

 

[Action_1505]

Here's my take.

This is probably almost a trillion $ industry with betting, media and the schools.

1. Make officials full time. Pay them to be "the" experts in the game and expect excellence in game calls.
2. Use immediate replay when necessary similar to how the spring football leagues do.
3. Replay should be openly discussed, not hidden behind some distant office that no one knows what's going on there.

That would be my start, debate could be given as to teams having a challenge or two like in baseball for bad or missed calls.
Maybe with the gambling end having such a huge monetary stake in this, there will be pressure to get better officiating.

Start fining the officials and a lot will change. That PI call should’ve been overturned by official running with play. An official 30 yards away from a play should not be allowed to throw that flag. All you have to do now as a DB just fall down they’ll call OPI!!!!

 

[savannahfan]

Generally, fans of the game are dissatisfied with officiating. It may be recency bias, but it seems like it is not improving. In fact, I think most everyone (fans, coaches, and media) will all agree it is getting worse. The problems are not limited to the SEC or the college game. It looks like this is true in all conferences and in the pro game.

So, what (if anything) can be done? Is it the resolution of cameras which make the bad calls more obvious? Does the modern game simply move too fast for the human eye? Do we need more officials, more cameras, more reviews?

What can be done to minimize the human error of officiating?

Not one dam- thing!!

 

[McDad]

Start fining the officials and a lot will change. That PI call should’ve been overturned by official running with play. An official 30 yards away from a play should not be allowed to throw that flag. All you have to do now as a DB just fall down they’ll call OPI!!!!

Is there a hierarchy for which official makes a call? In the Opi, for instance, the one with a poor vantage point made the call. Could the one closer simply over rule?
Or did the one further away have "seniority" (for lack of a better word)?

 

[kckempf]

would you favor a move to more booth-directed instant replay review as long as it didn't make the game longer?

The funny thing is the review process as-is is intentionally slower than it can be. The review can be conducted and finished from the booth without the input of the game officials at all. The whole ceremony of having the game officials stop and look at the play is only meant to reinforce the power of the officials on the field — more of a face-saving move than anything else.

Something similar is behind the outright refusal of referees to engage on reviewing pass interference. NFL allowed reviews for PI for one year, but I don’t think the refs changed a single call, as they were furious about the thought of being second guessed for something they considered to be a judgement call.

 

[GAVol]

Is there a hierarchy for which official makes a call? In the Opi, for instance, the one with a poor vantage point made the call. Could the one closer simply over rule?
Or did the one further away have "seniority" (for lack of a better word)?

The officials are looking at specific things depending on which position they’re in. There’s not really seniority and they can get together on calls, but you usually don’t see flags get picked up unless another official is very sure.

 

[Tnphil]

I have heard other people mention the lack of officials coming up through the high school ranks.
I agree on the school-affiliated bias even if it is just a perception.

There is a shortage in Tennessee. The old guard has died out or retired and there hasn't been enough new ones coming in the past several years. Several games are being played on other nights than Friday to get officials. I'm sure other states are having the same issues.

 

[TrueOrange]

Here's my take.

This is probably almost a trillion $ industry with betting, media and the schools.

1. Make officials full time. Pay them to be "the" experts in the game and expect excellence in game calls.
2. Use immediate replay when necessary similar to how the spring football leagues do.
3. Replay should be openly discussed, not hidden behind some distant office that no one knows what's going on there.

That would be my start, debate could be given as to teams having a challenge or two like in baseball for bad or missed calls.
Maybe with the gambling end having such a huge monetary stake in this, there will be pressure to get better officiating.

Make it a full time job. Pay them like it's a full time job. Training out of season. Hold them accountable like you would an employee who keeps screwing up

The problem is no one (ie, the conference) is going to pay full time salaries, benefits, health insurance, retirement, etc, to a group of people only working one day a week, for only like 5 months of the year. (And potentially another group that only works the basketball season….and a third group that only works the baseball season).

 

[GAVol]

would you favor a move to more booth-directed instant replay review as long as it didn't make the game longer?

I wish they’d got to an NFL style replay assist and take the reviews completely out of the infield ref’s hands so we don’t have to watch an announcement, a jog to a monitor, put on the headset…. Just announce the review and stand there while a replay center makes a call within 60 seconds. If they do t reverse the call within a minute, uphold the call on the field and get back to the action.

 

[TrueOrange]

Pretty sure the NFL officials are part time

They are, yes.

 

[barney]

Generally, fans of the game are dissatisfied with officiating. It may be recency bias, but it seems like it is not improving. In fact, I think most everyone (fans, coaches, and media) will all agree it is getting worse. The problems are not limited to the SEC or the college game. It looks like this is true in all conferences and in the pro game.

So, what (if anything) can be done? Is it the resolution of cameras which make the bad calls more obvious? Does the modern game simply move too fast for the human eye? Do we need more officials, more cameras, more reviews?

What can be done to minimize the human error of officiating?

I think a lot of it is changing social norms and toxic online behavior. Video review makes it much easier to spot errors and patterns. This is leading to burnout and guys deciding its just not worth it to do this for the love of the game.

More transparency helps. The ACC approach is really good. Answering media questions before and after the game would help as well. Like if a ref is a let em play kind of ref, tell us. If a ref is a call everything but a nosebleed kinda ref, tell us. Having clear expectations across different games will help. Instead we get everything second hand and inferred based on their actions and there is no consistency league to league or game to game. Also pay them more, test their vision regularly, and give them more training.

 

[GAVol]

The problem is no one (ie, the conference) is going to pay full time salaries, benefits, health insurance, retirement, etc, to a group of people only working one day a week, for only like 5 months of the year. (And potentially another group that only works the basketball season….and a third group that only works the baseball season).

Full time officials sounds like a great idea, but I really doubt you’re going to get much of an improved performance over what you get now to be honest. All in all, it’s a tough job that they do pretty well.

 

[Sudden Impact]

Pretty sure the NFL officials are part time

Are they trained and monitored. I think most officials are part time. I knew several college level and NFL officials in the 80s and 90s they all had their careers and that was a mistake for me making that statement. All are part time, NFL is regulated and organized. Unless their was a change in the NCAA toothless organization and not really governed. I am sure they are assigned games. Anything else catch your sharp eye.

I do think the speed of the game has caused some of the older officials some serious problems.

 

[UTK]

the fact that sec officiating has been absolutely trash for wellllll over a decade if not two but yet there’s still so many of the same faces calling the games shows you the conference does not care.

 

[hUTch2002]

How? You need humans on the field. Computers and AI cannot do it.

Show your work, bruh.

I thought he was saying to let dogs do it.

 

[dduncan4163]

Generally, fans of the game are dissatisfied with officiating. It may be recency bias, but it seems like it is not improving. In fact, I think most everyone (fans, coaches, and media) will all agree it is getting worse. The problems are not limited to the SEC or the college game. It looks like this is true in all conferences and in the pro game.

So, what (if anything) can be done? Is it the resolution of cameras which make the bad calls more obvious? Does the modern game simply move too fast for the human eye? Do we need more officials, more cameras, more reviews?

What can be done to minimize the human error of officiating?

I'm riding the conspiracy train on this one Hoss. I believe it's linked with sports betting.

 

[GVF]

Is officiating in other sports deteriorating as badly as in football?

I saw a MLB clip/replay of a called strike that was clearly crossing the batters box inside the chalk line to the batters side. THat would make it a minimum 8 inches off the plate. You could see 2"+ dirt between the chalk and the ball easily.