Is it possible to avoid a John O'Neill ref crew?

It's not just against Michigan.

And his continuing presence on the field seems to prove that there is no real accountability for officiating.

The fact that we all know his name means something is going very wrong.

When people know officials names it’s because they are either really good which is very unusual or really bad and he falls under the latter category. In basketball TV Ted and Cartensen (sp?)are a few that I hated when they did Michigan games in basketball. 

I only know the name of one college or pro official.  It's John O'Neil and only because no matter what game I watch where he's an official. I have at least 4 or 5 moments when I'm at a loss for words.  He is that bad at his job, that I almost feel like he has a black book with dirt on everyone.

People blame Warde Manuel for ENTIRELY TOO MUCH.

I'm not saying he could get it done, but I do believe he could strongly influence this.  Especially if he had someone in video compile the laundry list of video evidence into something he could share with conference.

Unfortunately short of the Big Ten firing his crew, UM or any other Big Ten team will not be able to avoid their idiotic officiating. Considering this is the same conference that allowed Ohio slappy officials who were barred from doing the game to do the game in 2016 including an official who outright admitted a bias against Harbaugh I'm not going to hold my breath on them actually holding anyone accountable. Big ten officiating in general in football and basketball is god awful and the same crews generally get brought back year after year. Though O'Neil crew is the only I have seen that makes 2-3 calls every game that defy all reason and logic.

Simply ignore the calls. Agree with the other team to alternate calls between the two coaches.

I know a guy ......

1. I don't think that O'Neill has a bias against Michigan so much as I think he's just a terrible referee with an equally terrible crew.
2. Michigan gets the O'Neill crew with no greater frequency than any other Big Ten school. It might seem like Michigan always gets him but it's just because each game officiated by him is awful and therefore sticks out in your mind.

What is Michigan's record when O'Neil's crew refs Michigan?  That would be an interesting stat to look at.

One of the questions to ask when considering replacing someone who is bad at their job: Can we find someone better? In situations like this, the pool of replacement candidates might be incredibly small. Are there any officiating crews in the MAC or other G5 leagues or even FCS that are known to do a consistently good job? Because that’s where the replacement crew mostly likely would come from. 
I’d want to know who a potential replacement would be before pursuing termination of this crew. As bad as they seem to be, it absolutely could get worse. Anyone else remember the Sun Belt crew at the 2005 Alamo Bowl? 

Honestly I'd root for getting this crew for the Ohio State game.  We need variance.

No

There should be a system where coaches rank ref crews before each game - ones they want to ref the upcoming game with the ability to veto use of a couple crews.  The most important games (I'm sure you could come up with a metric for this) get first pick of a crew most mutually acceptable to both coaches.

Crews consistently on multiple veto lists ultimately get replaced.

I knew Jim Kemerling's name as a kid because he threw the flag on Chris Stapleton's fake punt in the Rose Bowl against USC.  Phantom holding.  After the game, he bragged to other officials that he threw the flag on that play to screw over Bo in his final game and the PAC 10 official called Bo the following day and ratted him out.  Then, for the next decade, Michigan was stuck with that POS as the official every time we had a big game.  

I don't know if officials are rotated throughout the conference during a season but the truly bad ones like O'Neil seem to be around more often than they should be.  

He's terrible. To compound that issue he always seems to appear in critical games that M ends up losing. 

John O'Neill is my "QAnon".  Call it O'Anon  I would strap on 4 layers of tinfoil hat and happily consume all evidence, no matter how flimsy, that this dude is corrupt, paid by George Soros (who is obviously an OSU fan), probably doesn't have a birth certificate.  There are probably dudes driving around in cars with prefilled A+ performance reviews.  I'd continue, but the joke is running its course.

Yeah, fuck him and his whole crew.

It’s not a Michigan board if we don’t have at least one ref whining thread on the front page during the season. 
 

This is how I know the season is back. 

It is if you “know a guy” like I’m sure some at Rutgers do.

The officials are graded every week, and are expected to call games according to standards set by the leagues in which they work.  Here are a couple of links that might be of interest--they're to sites that refs use.

Interesting article:  http://www.footballzebras.com/2020/12/coaches-behavior-in-the-ncaa-is-becoming-unacceptable-again/

More active on game days.  The NFL section is also interesting for fans of that league:  https://refereestats.proboards.com/

Enjoy hanging with the Zebras.  :)

That said

is it possible not to bitch about referees at the end of the day

when the dust settles

it is what it is

that having been said

wow what a sad narrative

It is probably worth noting, when I did the officiating analysis a couple of years ago that detailed strong evidence that Michigan's defensive line was drawing an inconceivably low number of holding calls on opposing offenses; I also did analysis to see if any officiating crews had significantly inconsistent outcomes for Michigan (e.g. bias).  I found no evidence.

The guy is just an idiot, not biased towards or against anybody.  To steal one from Yost, he just sucks!

I thought the visiting team brought the refs?  When did that change?