Big Ten official: No regrets about Michigan-Ohio State calls

Submitted by Maizen on

Maybe one day officials will actually be held accountable for their mistakes. That doesn't appear to be today. From Angelique...

Bill Carollo, Big Ten coordinator of football officials, certainly remembers. He took several calls from Harbaugh who was outraged by the first-down spot given to OSU quarterback J.T. Barrett on a fourth-down play that led to the Buckeyes’ eventual winning touchdown. Harbaugh after the game held his hands apart about a foot and said his view of the first down was “that short.”

“We talked multiple times,” Carollo said Tuesday during Big Ten media days.

There was considerable outrage among Michigan fans after the game because of the makeup of the crew, particularly the Ohio residents. Carollo said he sent his best crew, which consisted of three officials from Michigan, three from Ohio, four from Indiana, one from Illinois, and one from Pennsylvania.
 
He said his officials will recuse themselves if there is a conflict of interest.
 
“I have about 12 different categories of conflicts of interest, not just, ‘Did you play football at Michigan or Wisconsin or wherever it might be,’” he said. “So we have that. It’s all written and we have that. Residency is not one of my conflicts of interest. They have to live somewhere. But if you live somewhere, and you feel there’s any doubt, you take yourself off. I’ll give you another — you’re not losing a game. We have a lot of people that raise their hand and say, ‘I should not work here. My best friend’s in the front office of this team.’
 
“It was handled fine. It was one of my top crews. That crew went on to work the semifinal playoff game.”
 
Carollo knows it’s impossible to call a perfect game. And the Michigan-Ohio State officiating, he said, was not perfect.
 
“Are there mistakes in a few games? Yes. Were there some in that game? Yes,” Carollo said. “Did they have a good game? Yes. Solid game. It wasn’t perfect. Never is. Never will be. But I think the conversation with coach and Michigan was handled properly.”

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/wolverines/2017/07/25/big-ten-official-no-regrets-michigan-ohio-state-calls/509042001/

ColeIsCorky

July 25th, 2017 at 2:36 PM ^

Yeah, we did, but that doesn't mean something can't be learned from it on all fronts. Including the Big Ten office. If anything, they should try to not leave it up to their employees to make the call as to whether or not their fanboy selves can handle reffing a game like that without any temptation to skew the outcome. That decision should be made by those in charge to alleviate any concerns. I'm not even going to say that those officials made calls based off who their favorite team was. But the failure is that it should never even be a possible discussion point. Same goes for refs affiliated with the University of Michigan. It doesn't take much research nowadays to do a quick background check on these guys to make sure that never happens when the integrity of the game could be on the line. I just want the Big Ten to learn from that game. Not change the score. Just make corrections with how you staff each game. Maybe that's not possible, but at least don't deny that it could be something worth looking into.

Heywood_Jablome

July 25th, 2017 at 3:52 PM ^

Call was reviewed in the booth too. If it was a bad call, it would have been overturned.  Some people just gloss over this fact.  I guess everyone was in on it...

50/50 call that didn't go our way. Move on.

crg

July 25th, 2017 at 6:23 PM ^

Sorry Heywood, but we have several instances of reviewed calls being blown by the replay crew over the past few years. This one was, perhaps, more defensible than others - though there are some head scratchers out there (the Syracuse-Toledo 2011 field goal, 2015 Miami-Duke, 2016 CMU - OK state, etc.)

Stringer Bell

July 25th, 2017 at 2:28 PM ^

Sorry, any time two evenly matched teams meet up in a heated rivalry game and one team gets called for 6 penalty yards while the other gets called for 59, it was not a solid game by the officials.

UMAmaizinBlue

July 25th, 2017 at 2:28 PM ^

That they addressed it at media days, but can we let this die now? We're so close to 2017 kickoff, the last thing we need is reminders of pain that will be remedied in a few months. Lord knows ESPN and every other news outlet will beat this dead horse again come November.

ScottyP

July 25th, 2017 at 2:57 PM ^

I think I am okay with the First down call to be honest with ya'll. It was other horrible calls, PI on GP that wasn't called, early PI on OSU again that wasn't called. The BS PI that WAS called on blue. And of course, I honestly believe that if they don't call Mason Cole for that lame ass offensive facemask call on the perfect screen play, we win that game. Of all games and the situation, the refs had to see that. I think you have to swallow the whistle on that one, he didn't pull or twist, just a face palm, know what im sayin?

WolverineHistorian

July 25th, 2017 at 4:11 PM ^

The phantom pass interference on 3rd & long when OSU was pinned inside their own 10...that just about killed me. Felt like I had to throw up at that moment, long before the convenient spot controversy. Actually made me miss the days of Jim Kemmerling doing officiating. And that's pretty damn sad.

chrs5mr

July 25th, 2017 at 2:33 PM ^

This is exactly why the Big Ten needs to have centralized replay from Chicago as it would take the call out of the officials hands.  The conference then couldn't hide behind officials using the standard "judgment call" excuse.

ijohnb

July 25th, 2017 at 2:44 PM ^

would not have changed the first down.  That was part of how brutal that call was that the ref just went to the first down line and marked it there knowing that it was close enough that it would not be reversed.  Just really evil.

In reply to by ijohnb

Logan88

July 25th, 2017 at 3:15 PM ^

I rail against the shitty officiating in that game as much as anyone, but I never had a problem with "The Spot". It was close enough that I could see it being called either way.

I had a problem with the ten or so penalties that OSU got away with in regulation that were blindingly obvious calls (Darboh getting hogtied to the ground, Mike Weber's cheap shot late hit, Butt getting bear hugged a couple of times) but the refs refused to call. The game would have never made it to OT if the refs had called it fair throughout the game. UM would have won by 7-10 in regulation with fair officiating.

Qseverus

July 25th, 2017 at 2:36 PM ^

Sounds like to a large extent Carollo is putting the refs on the honor system as to whether or not they should work in any particular game. Not sure that works very well with those having Ohio State connections.

Icehole Woody

July 25th, 2017 at 2:41 PM ^

That spot that gave Barrett the 1st down was pure bullshit. Even more disgusting than the call were the sucknuts pushing the obvious times 10exp6 photoshopped image "proving" the correct spot. That whole fucking officiating crew should be banned for life.

charblue.

July 25th, 2017 at 2:40 PM ^

else Corollo is going to say about it. I mean we saw what we saw, inconsistencies on various calls made to benefit the home team versus the visitors. Penalties called that weren't called in other circumstances. This was a poorly olfficiated game and it ended well for the home team. If that was Carollo's best crew, my opinion is that it sucked big time and that it was given a playoff game because every conference crew got one, and so it was awarded by default.

I don't care where the officials live, either. I believe their job requires integrity on a weekly basis. It requires consistency on a weekly basis. This crew on that day in November sucked. They missed calls or failed to apply the same standards in making certain calls. Doesn't change anything. Another life lesson.

kb

July 25th, 2017 at 2:43 PM ^

Someone can say they can be fair and truly think it, but bias comes through in ways outside of awareness. This is why allowing self recusal is bad.

drjaws

July 25th, 2017 at 2:48 PM ^

of Ohio based refs who are OSU slappies gargling OSU testicles fortnightly aren't going to have regrets about fucking Michigan over.  It's like a badge of honor to those cucks.

 

The only fuckery that was more blatant was Pacquiao v Horn.

Year of Revenge II

July 25th, 2017 at 2:52 PM ^

Re Carollo:

Regrets, he had a few, but too few to mention...

He did what he had to do, and saw it through, without exemption...

In other words, his incompetent, cheatin-ass crew sucked on that day, and ensured home cookin for the home team.  Pure, incompetent bullshit.