ijohnb

November 28th, 2016 at 9:49 AM ^

doesn't work like that.  Each team puts together their own crew, and then the coaches play a game of paper-rock-scissors to determine which crew gets the game.  In this instance, Harbaugh being a blunt object, went with "rock" 11 consecutive times and Meyer finally overcame him with a well-timed "paper."  Turned out to be one of the most influential plays of the day in hindsight.

In reply to by ijohnb

FauxMo

November 28th, 2016 at 9:57 AM ^

I could see Harbaugh playing that game like my kids did when they were little, and me having to say: "Coach Harbaugh, I know rock is the coolest looking and the strongest, but you can't just pick rock every time. You'll just keep losing!" 

Tater

November 28th, 2016 at 9:47 AM ^

What pisses me off the most is that if they get refs from Michigan, they don't slant the game in Michigan's favor like Ohio people do for OSU.  The slant only seems to go one way, and it's not toward Ann Arbor.

You Only Live Twice

November 28th, 2016 at 10:09 AM ^

Many times over the years.  There have been Michigan refs in our games... you just wouldn't know it.  

Also Andy Minery said this morning that Michigan-based refs declined games based on conflict of interest where they felt they couldn't be fair, or at least, didn't want to be in the situation where they could be perceived as biased. 

Mannix

November 28th, 2016 at 10:19 AM ^

He was the baseball coach at Grand Rapids CC for many years and called in the B1G for both basketball and football. He was a Michigan fan but you wouldn't have known it-Bo and Lloyd were in his ear constantly.

Squash34

November 28th, 2016 at 12:16 PM ^

Just because your from Michigan does not automatically mean you are a Michigan fan. In Ohio, (outside of the north east region, of course) all most everyone is an osu fan. They are the only "show in town", football-wize in the state.
Sure, they may route for a smaller Ohio school, but most also route for osu. In Michigan, you have people with affiliation to smaller schools that also route for Michigan and State.
I think having a ref from either state is so so bad, but when he is from ohio, it us worse because the chance of them being biased drastically higher.

Red is Blue

November 28th, 2016 at 9:52 AM ^

Perhaps that is how officials should be chosen. A pool of officials, teams have the right to dismiss certain officials either with or without cause with a limited number of without cause dismissals. This would seem to be fair and a way to get feedback on refs. After a certain number of dismissals, refs are fired.

FauxMo

November 28th, 2016 at 9:47 AM ^

Yeah, it's not like a jury, as far as I know. The coaches don't get to dismiss 3 of the refs they don't like. 

Has anyone confirmed that these guys were really who people are saying they are? I mean, are they really a couple OSU fanboys and a guy that got fired for incompetence? Because if so, I think all fans across the B1G deserve to know why this is acceptable... 

Mannix

November 28th, 2016 at 10:17 AM ^

I made mention of this yesterday deep in a thread, but here in Texas, in the postseason coaches have a list of "preferred" arbiters and work from that list.

The ones they have deemed poor are not requested and both coaches typically get to choose from their assocation.

At the state games, the honor is bestowed on the arbiters with high ratings. (Baseball)

Football crews are well known. They have a profile, contact information, and coaches can look the week of to find out who they have (regular season)

 

Squash34

November 28th, 2016 at 12:23 PM ^

Michigan could not tell the big ten to get a crew free of multiple Ohioans for this game?
I think it us crazy to think Michigan can not object to a crew with one formerly fired ref, and 2 from ohio. I mean, the one dude was told in the past he could not work the game because he was from the state if Ohio. This year, though, that changed and TWO were allowed.
I think, if Michigan knew, and protested playing the biggest game with two biased refs and one with past incompetency issues, the big ten has to switch the crew.
I mean, could you imagine if harbaugh's rant extended from how bad the refs were, to "and we tried to get the crew changed before the game because it was full off Ohioans and the biased showed today".

BlueUPer

November 28th, 2016 at 9:52 AM ^

I've been a varsity (HS) coach for 20 years.  I always check as to who is going to officiate the next game.  So....I would guarantee that Harbaugh knew who was officiating prior.  

I have also officiated HS football.  Without a doubt, I would have a difficult time not being biased toward UM if I 'reffed' one of their games, especially, The Game.  

Squash34

November 28th, 2016 at 12:29 PM ^

But, after all the crap their fan base is talking about its just us whining, and the game was reffed fairly... Well, now I hope every single game has multiple Michigan alums or life long fans as refs. Let them "whine" after watching refs gleefully pat their players on the butt, and smile proudly after the fourth down "conversation". I am sure, they would be ok with this and accept 2 Michigan penalties for 6 yards -- in a 2 damn it game...
So, yea, after Saturday, if I reffed, I would be just as biased as that crew.

StraightDave

November 28th, 2016 at 10:13 AM ^

Again, the refs didn't force Speight to throw a couple picks or fumble the ball on the goal line.   Speight blew it just as hard as the refs. 

FauxMo

November 28th, 2016 at 10:27 AM ^

This anti-Michigan talking point is just plain stupid. OF COURSE Speight and the team make mistakes. OF COURSE it would have been better if we had been up 28-7 in the 4th. But that in NO WAY undermines the fact that we got fucked harder than any team I have ever seen get fucked by the refs. I mean, are people really saying that Harbugh should have game-planned for getting fucked by the refs? Really??? 

ghostofhoke

November 28th, 2016 at 11:17 AM ^

Yeah but we didn't win. We would've been winning by more without the turnovers which might have been enough of a margin to hang on. I'm not piling on Speight, he was gusty for getting out there banged up and performed admirably but the turnovers happened and they affected the outcome more than the refs. Turnovers are within your control, refs are not.




Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

SGBlue

November 28th, 2016 at 12:07 PM ^

And missed field goals and stupid fake punts are in your control, but somehow OSU's mistakes didn't cost them The Game, as it should have. Their mistakes offset our mistakes, but they still won the game for unfair reasons. The Ohio refs should not have been assigned to this game. The league cocked up big time.




Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

Squash34

November 28th, 2016 at 12:45 PM ^

UNTIL that very bad pi call, which I'm pretty sure was thrown by the back judge-- you know, the self proclaimed life long osu fan. After that the crowd got back into it and the offence wore down the Michigan def.
Otherwize that's a punt. With around 4 min left. I believe that's the death blow. They don't have all the time outs and they have to doubt their offense can move the ball if they cause a punt.
Bottomline, if that was reffed right, they win even with the turnovers. I know people like to say "well don't give the refs a chance. To that I say, it was not one bad call or no call. Michigan was fighting an uphill battle all game. Moreover, sometimes you plat close games like this, where BOTH teams are making critical mistakes. This does not mean you shrug off the clearly biased refs by saying well, we should have been up by more verse the second ranked team that mist thought was going to dominate Michigan pre game.
Michigan played better even with the turnovers - hense why osu only lead for about 3 min of game time, despite the turnovers. They gave osu a chance.
However, they did not lose them the game, the refs did. Let me put it a different way, it was not a late turn over that gave osu a chance, it was the bad pi call.

Blue Mike

November 28th, 2016 at 10:22 AM ^

The question isn't whether or not the coaching staff was aware of who the officiating crew was (I'm sure they were informed which crew would be working the game), it comes down to whether or not Harbaugh and company should be expected to run background checks on all officials before each game. I highly doubt they pay much attention to who the officials are, they probably trust the B1G to assign competent, unbiased officials each week.

Apparently we need to hire more staffers to run background checks on all officials, since the B1G can't do anything right. 

ijohnb

November 28th, 2016 at 2:40 PM ^

is no question that he will.  I expect that he will sometimes make statements regarding the officials pregame, calling them by name and even possibly identifying other games they have done in the past.  He will put the spotlight directly on the officials to call a fair game, and if they don't he will talk about it.   He may get fined a couple of times but eventually the BIG will just have to crack down on poor officiating to solve the problem.  He has an uphill battle to climb here.  Michigan got four years of bad calls under Brady Hoke and Hoke just kept clapping.  I really think they just got used to walking all over Michigan because they got no blowback for it. 

charblue.

November 28th, 2016 at 11:03 AM ^

are made by the league office. Schools have no choice in who works their games  That is the work of the league's officiating office headed by Bill Carolo, a former college and NFL referee.

While schools have no choice in who works their games, past experience issues with certain crews dictate how those assignments are made.

The league never wants an officiating crew to become the focal point of competitive issues or widespread claims of bias based on  conerns about residency, fraternization or personal rooting interest. All of those concerns have become manifest in the wake of Saturday's game and fan review of the officiating crew's makeup.

. Crews are evaluated weekly by the league and schools are allowed to submit tape of calls they question in those games. They sometimes get feedback and more often don't.

Generally speaking, challenging officiating is never a good thing because it almost always goes nowhere and it doesn't do much in promoting better officiating  in your games in the future. Essentially, you are calling out the integrity of the league. And if that's your aim, well, consider the league's integrity challenged in this case.

But do not expect any public response from any source in connection with anything that occurred officiatingwise on Saturday in Columbus.

Squash34

November 28th, 2016 at 12:57 PM ^

So I'll ask you a few question. The back judge's crew also worked the 06 game. However, he was told that he can't officiate because of his connections. So, the officiating office knew a decade ago that he was from Ohio and a life long fan ten years ago.
Yet, they allow him, another ref from Ohio, and one that has past disciplinary actions for incompetency, to officiate.
So, how can this possibly happen? To me, there is no way around corruption or conspiracy. Because, again, they know these guys are from Ohio and have stopped the one I. The past, and know the lead ref has had incompetency issues. So, it is to big of a leap for me to think this is the league office being incompetent. To me, someone had to ok them know the conflict of interest for two of the refs in favor of osu.
Do you see it differently?

charblue.

November 28th, 2016 at 11:22 AM ^

over the years, Big Ten officials can decline to work certain schools games because of perceived conflicts of interests for various reasons due to family connections at a certain school, education background, residency or personal and work ties.

During the course of his career, Dick Honig, who has lived in Ann Arbor and formerly operated a national officiating apparel business on Jackson Avenue in Ann Arbor, recused himself from ever working a Michigan football game because of hsi local residency . He never worked a game at the Big House, even though he was perhaps one of the most respected referees in college football for years. Today, he sometimes works the booth as a Big Ten review official. And has also been employed on game broadcasts by ESPN as a rules analyst.

There are few fulltime officials in college football. And the NFL doesn't even employ officials as fulltime employees. Like Major Leagues Baseball, the NFL employs officiakls as contract employees but they are not actually paid as fulltime employees.

 

 

Hoops McCann

November 28th, 2016 at 1:49 PM ^

to me that osu took advantage of knowing these homers were calling the game and made holding part of their game plan as it started from the opening drive. maybe its time for delaney to retire and  go sit in the suite at the Shoe on saturdays and count his money.

jsquigg

November 28th, 2016 at 3:27 PM ^

I don't want unbiased refs.  No one is unbiased.  I want refs who seek to be professional, fair and consistent.  U of M got none of the above.  If you are an admitted fan of a team, you should never officiate that team's games because your inherent bias will factor in, whether in favor or against that team because you are for them or over compensating to try to be balanced.  In the EPL refs cannot be from the city of the two teams playing.  This should be a simple fix, but Delaney.........