Officials in NCAA / NFL
In light of the questionable officiating that has happened in both NCAA / NFL, I'm curious how others would feel if the human element was taken out of the equation.
1. The technology is already available where we at home have multiple angles of the previous play in seconds.
2. There is no reason the head official has to be on the field - he can be in a box reviewing the correct placement of the ball, the correct call, radio down to the field, etc..
3. I've never understood why the original call on the field, in real time at possibly poor angles, would have any effect on the final call of a given play.
If you were to make a prediction for how this sport will progress in the next 5-10 years, do you think any of the above will change? Why or why not?
Or, am I just an asshole? (well, I don't think there's much doubt about that).
October 1st, 2018 at 7:29 PM ^
1. Yep.
2. Yep.
3. It shouldn't. People are idiots. Refs are even worse. Let the replay decide.
4. Nope, none of it will change.
5. Why? GET OFF MY LAWN is why.
6. Probably, yeah, but you're a CORRECT asshole.
October 1st, 2018 at 7:32 PM ^
How about a sensor in the ball that can detect first downs?
EDIT: We can call it the "JT Tracker"
October 1st, 2018 at 8:56 PM ^
I've thought for a long time that sensors cant be too far away. With all of the technology that is out there, how stupid is it to trust some old dude with bad eyesight spotting the exact spot that a ball reached from over 40 yards away. I'd love to see them try and do this on a test basis to find out just how poorly the ball was spotted over the course of a game. When they can track a golf ball through the air for over 300 yards, you know that the technology is out there to spot a football.
October 2nd, 2018 at 5:52 AM ^
Because it entirely depends on where the ball is when the player goes down. The position of the ball is secondary to when and where the player touches the ground.
October 2nd, 2018 at 7:26 AM ^
That's easy enough to combine the technology with replay for location of the player when he's down.
October 2nd, 2018 at 9:17 AM ^
There are definitely technologies that can more accurately and efficiently track and locate the ball, and very likely referee most of the game. But there are also more accurate and efficient ways to convey a football 300’ than give it to a young man dressed in a hilarious suit of armor and have him run down the field.
October 1st, 2018 at 9:23 PM ^
That is a great idea. No reason not to do it. They should adopt it tomorrow.
October 1st, 2018 at 10:16 PM ^
There are some things such tracking couldn't do.
It couldn't detect whether or not a player was down.
It would be impractical on an every down basis.
It could not determine possession.
Those are the limitations. But for the purposes of determining spots, a virtually impossible exercise using cameras, it would be tremendous. I estimate that at least 90% of spot/plane of endzone issues could be resolved.
It wouldn't tell you when a player was down, but most of the time you can tell that anyway; just isolate the frame of footage where the player is "down" by the judgment of the referee and identify where the ball is at the time.
Some B1G school with a good engineering department should do this.
October 1st, 2018 at 11:33 PM ^
Good engineering department? Sounds like a job for Alabama
October 2nd, 2018 at 7:31 AM ^
There is definitely imaging software out there that could be synced with a tracker that could tell where the ball is and whether or not a player is down. The alogrithm would be huge though so processing time would be long. Of course plays where you can't see the player with the ball would be very hard to determine.
October 2nd, 2018 at 8:32 AM ^
I am pretty sure you could have proximity senors in the knee and elbow pads to tell when someone was down.
October 2nd, 2018 at 10:38 AM ^
If sensors can tell us if a baseball is in a batter's strike zone or not why can't they tell us if a player is down?
I think they may be more sophisticated than you realize.
October 1st, 2018 at 7:33 PM ^
Agree. For example put sensors the helmets of offensive lineman and linemen downfield could be an automatic flag, or buzz their helmets to let them know they are close to a penalty.
Put sensors in the football for placement. Not foolproof but helpful.
know exactly where the football is when a knee or elbow are down with the players wearing sensors combined with sensors in the football.
i cannot figure out why baseball balls and strikes are not already automated.
You are always going to have some human error but it sure could be reduced
personally I would prefer we pay for full time professional refs that are paid and rated based upon performance. Pay them real money
October 1st, 2018 at 7:41 PM ^
If there were sensors for ball placement that were able to correctly place the ball at the moment a knee/elbow touched down I’d bet you see yds/rush go down. I really think there is GENEROUS ball placement across the board. Most of it is natural human incapability of taking that visual snapshot of where the ball is in space st the moment a player is down. The human referee always gives where the player lands, which I imagine is, at a minimum, a foot or two further than where it should be most of the time.
October 1st, 2018 at 7:51 PM ^
Sensors like in bowling? Why not put an earpiece in the QBs helmet and have the OC give him real-time advice on where to go with the ball. Same on defense. If you are going to sensor everything, then it takes the fun out of the game.
October 1st, 2018 at 8:13 PM ^
Why stop there? After you have earpieces in helmets, eventually all the players are gonna be riding velociraptors cloned from dna that was preserved in amber. At that point, the 3 yards and a cloud of dust we all know and love will be replaced with 3 yards and a cloud of dust, blood, and cloned dinosaur bits. It's not football and we can't let that happen to the game we love.
October 1st, 2018 at 8:34 PM ^
I'm going to venture a guess that the NVRL (National Velociraptor League) will get way better ratings than the NFL
October 2nd, 2018 at 6:46 AM ^
Anyone who says that they would not watch at least one such game is lying to us and to themselves.
October 1st, 2018 at 9:48 PM ^
I believe they call this the slippery slope fallacy.
October 1st, 2018 at 8:18 PM ^
Edit: oh come on
October 1st, 2018 at 8:39 PM ^
You can't pay the refs as full time professionals, because the NCAA is amateur sports and stuff and it cheapens the game's morals or something.
/sarcasm
October 1st, 2018 at 7:35 PM ^
Human Element is part of the officiating problem? WTF. How many things can they screw up?
October 1st, 2018 at 8:31 PM ^
This is an underrated comment
October 2nd, 2018 at 10:44 AM ^
All the things...
October 1st, 2018 at 7:38 PM ^
This is completely random for this thread, but does anyone have any idea where I could watch a replay of the Michigan/Northwestern game (I'm brand new here and can't start a topic, so I figured ask this here)? I didn't get to see any of it this past weekend and I always like rewatching them anyways. Typically I go to mgovideo on youtube, but I'm not seeing it there or any of the previous game videos that I've watched before for that matter. Thanks for the help and sorry for posting this here.
October 1st, 2018 at 7:47 PM ^
Mgovideo had one up, but it got taken down already.
October 1st, 2018 at 7:54 PM ^
I was going to call you an idiot and post the video because I watched the full game on YouTube yesterday on MGoVideo's page and it appears to have been nuked.
October 2nd, 2018 at 8:12 AM ^
“I was going to call you an idiot...” - honorable for you to admit so +1 for that but typical of several longtime (and the most vocal) commenters here. Insult first, think later (if at all).
October 1st, 2018 at 7:59 PM ^
Check WDs highlight post from yesterday. It’s everything you need and nothing more.
October 1st, 2018 at 8:02 PM ^
It's probably available on btn2go
October 2nd, 2018 at 2:11 AM ^
Try this website - http://hailtv.com/ - I believe it's a poster here's site. I wish I could remember their name to give him/her some credit. All the 2018 games are here: http://hailtv.com/series/2018-football/
October 2nd, 2018 at 7:17 AM ^
Appreciate the shoutout!
October 2nd, 2018 at 10:47 AM ^
They nuked it. Apparently Fox Sports doesn't like to share.
October 2nd, 2018 at 9:57 AM ^
BTN app on the Roku. Go back to the date and select the game
October 1st, 2018 at 7:41 PM ^
Or, the rules of football have become so complicated and subjective it's impossible for even highly trained officials to get everything right.
October 1st, 2018 at 9:27 PM ^
The problem isn’t with highly trained officials who do a good job in a difficult situation it is with the officials who do a clearly shitty job. Start firing officials and the performance will improve.
October 2nd, 2018 at 10:56 AM ^
If enough people start tweeting at the B1G we may get some traction.
October 1st, 2018 at 7:42 PM ^
I've never understood why you can't challenge penalties. I mean, they are just as much a judgment call as a spot or whether a ball was caught, etc., and those calls are challengeable. You want to prevent from slowing the game down or something, only give a team one penalty challenge a game unless they get it right.
October 1st, 2018 at 8:53 PM ^
99.9% sure you can challenge penalties in the CFL.
October 1st, 2018 at 7:46 PM ^
I can’t belive with all the gripes about first downs that we don’t have a camera in a first down marker like some end zone pylons.
October 1st, 2018 at 7:53 PM ^
I've said this for a while. There's a big stick held at the first down line. How hard would it be to insert a tiny camera in the first down stick do you'd always have a down-the-line angle? I can't count the number of times we've only had awkward 45 degree angles and refs are like "well no clean view of the marker line". This seems like a super easy and obvious fix to that problem.
October 1st, 2018 at 8:29 PM ^
I guess that's where I struggle to understand some of this stuff. There's no shortage of money in either league. An extra couple cameras and someone up top to help call the action just makes sense, especially as athletes continue to get bigger / faster. I give a lot of credit to officials for getting things right as much as they do, but when a game can be decided by one bad call or a call can be upheld based on split second judgment, then it is baffling why that is not addressed.
October 2nd, 2018 at 12:08 AM ^
AT LEAST down the goal line ffs. It seems like there's always one close, but like 90% of the time they're at least a yard or two off of the line. Why wouldn't you line it straight up??? I don't understand why this isn't standard practice.
October 2nd, 2018 at 9:41 AM ^
I feel like you would only need to add First Down markers to the other sideline. Then you have a straight line across the field that you could create a gate via sensors in both First Down markers (not the Crooked Blue Line(TM) we currently have) and then can sense whether the sensor in the football breaks the gated plane. Same thing with End Zone pylons. The issues with "being down" could then be mitigated by synching the video feed with the sensor (which could literally change from red to green when the ball crosses the plane). This would also work well on forward progress, as you can then prove JT was short.
October 1st, 2018 at 7:46 PM ^
I just wish we could review phantom holding calls. Unreviewable calls negate any check and balances of offficiating
October 1st, 2018 at 8:16 PM ^
This guy doesn't want checks and balances.
here is a better picture of the Villan
October 2nd, 2018 at 3:12 PM ^
Absolute power corrupts absolutely lol
October 1st, 2018 at 7:56 PM ^
I can text my friend what to bring me home off of cheesecake factories 47 page menu in 38 seconds but these guys can’t figure out the spot of a ball from a monitor? Come meow.
also-
Targeting suspensions - Full review at BIG10 offices on Sunday. Announced Sunday night, by the same people everytime. No more ejections with a home crowd ready to boo the one mercifully that is making the decision.
October 2nd, 2018 at 8:38 AM ^
Lots of highlights in your post.
I like the targeting review committee - would also make for a fun sunday night news piece for even more publicity.
But the best part is "Come meow."