Impressive.  I've tried to use the ESPN API before and couldn't register, so I just scraped the data from the game play-by-plays. 

It's interesting to see how few holding calls are accepted, though I will argue that we are talking about a difference of less than 1 call a game spread out over 27 games, per team.  And as a counter to this finding, Michigan also was top-3 in the league every year in sacks and TFLs.  So some of it may simply be that Michigan gets to the ballcarrier so quickly, so consistently, that they don't get as many opportunities for linemen to grab on.

John Kryk broke this down pretty well via the Twitters.  Funny how providing just the numbers gets you branded a whiner or conspiracy theorist.

The thing that jumps out to me is look at Wisconsin, Michigan State, Iowa, OSU, Penn State.  Generally, the "top" defenses all at 19-21 and a lot of manball in that group.

Michigan then coming in at half the calls?    Possible, but definitely doesn't smell right.

It must be because we don't have a very dominent offensive line and teams don't have to hold to stop the pass rush. /s

Boy I can't tell you how happy i am when the stat nerds show up. The reason Michigan is not getting holding calls is because they usually are drive stoppers and there is no way in hell the majority of officials in the big ten are going to help out Michigan.

There really is no reason to beat this to death. When you have guys like Mark May openly questioning the officiating during the osu game that is enough for me.

Whether the officials have been given some type of directive, are doing it on there own or whatever the case is may be, it is happening and people outside of the Michigan fan base are noticing.

I personally believe there has been discussions about Harbaugh and michigan within certain officiating crews. They are like any typical hater who has to appease his ego. Harbaugh and michigan bring out insecurities and jealousies and the ego or id of the little official becomes unbiased because he will not be bullied and he is not scared.

Why do you think Harbaughs whole demeanor changed on the sideline. The officials want you to kiss their ass and be nice to them. In other words the coaches who can blow smoke up there ass and munipulate things in there favor will get more calls. Human beings don't want to hear there wrong, be yelled at and bullied. Of course they have become totally unproffesional and should not be officiating a tee ball game.

Okay real simple they are thin skinned pussies who are digging there gay little spurs in and will not make the right calls for the mean crazy that coaches at the big university up north. Who the fuck do those arrogant mother fuckers think they are. I don't care if one of there d-lineman flat out gets raped I am not helping them win. That is what is happening IMO. Indiana used to get a lot of calss but i bet they go down with that hot head there. OSU gets flagged a lot just not in the Michigan game because we somehow have become the evil empire. It all filters down from Delaney though in some ways. Anything outside the box thinkig by Harbaugh and Delany wants to shoot it down.

Listen guys why do you think Harbaugh mellowed out on the sideline?. That is the tell tale sign that he knows something, either that or he is eating a shit ton of xanex before each game this year and was on steroids last year.LOL. You see what I am saying.

Harbaugh is trying to change the tide because he knows the fucks in the stripped suits are one sensitive and two allready have an agenda.

In high school do you think the guys in the band really liked most of the jocks especially the QB and just think if he was loud and arrogant. Ya the officials are the tuba player who got a wedgy dailey from the starting QB. Did'nt Harbaugh used to be the starting QB at Michigan. Hmmm. Insecurities and jealousies bring on supreme hatred. I don't give people wedgy's but have dealt with this stuff my whole life. Harbaugh does'nt want to bow down to these fucks but he has to and we should respect him even more because he does not want to hurt the team.

The lions never used to get calls go there way because they were a easy target. They were not good and nobody cared outside of Detroit. This is a whole other animal and it involves egos being bruised and to some degree directives.

Just think if the guy in charge of officiating told all the crews don't let Harbaugh or Michigan intimidate you. That is all he would have to say to start all this shit. It is as simple as that. Egos and insecurities and jealousies get people killed on a dailey basis and this is only football. Harbaugh is not going to tell you but why do you think his sideline demeanor changed tenfold?. He was the starting QB who was loud and arrogant and he wants all the tuba playersto forget that he gave them a wedgy last year and most of their lives IMO.

Of course I am twisted but you get what I am saying. Also nothing wrong with playing in the band, but I bet a lot of you laugh at officials from now on.

Great work! What may be even more compelling, would be to look at this in a pair-wise perspective, which would essentially normalize for common opponents. If you have the data from each individual game (which I think you do) this should be feasible.

It would be really great if you could expand this analysis to other P5 conference teams. It would be nice to find the correlation between defensive line havoc rate, and holds drawn. There may also exist a correlation between LB havoc rate and holds drawn.

If there is, then Michigan's results would stand out as an *even greater* outlier.

Someone is clearly doing something very wrong

If this site is correct

https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/opponent-plays-per-g…

we face about 66 plays a game from our opponents.

Which means about .4 holding calls a game

Or 1 holding call every 10 quarters of play

Thanks for preparing.  I wonder how Dom Brown's pre-Michigan teams do in this regard?

Are holds more likely to be called with:

 - Certain types of defensive plays?  

 - Certain types of offenses?  

 

Can you please pull together a similar analysis for spots?  

Impressive work. 

It's difficult and somewhat pointless to assess the "why." Some people are alleging full-blown conspiracy, a malicious choice by refs to keep flags unthrown on holds they know occur. Either their own choice or, more chillingly, a choice made under instructions from higher up.

I find such scenarios absurd. A much simpler, more defensible, and logical option exists: Blithering incompetence. 

Option 1: the officials of the B1G are part of a team so sophisticated that they can target and systematically deprive one team of rightful calls in such a way that the calls they make are, just barely, plausible enough to avoid media attention.

Option 2: The officials of the B1G are guys with full-time jobs that are mostly past their physical primes and are trying to ref a blazingly fast game featuring dozens of elite athletes making plays that need to be evaluated in a split second, and get things wrong a lot. They are, for the purpose of this option, bumbling fools.

Now, let's look at the alleged ringleader:

Look at this man and tell me which description he fits: A sophisticated evil conspirator... or a bumbling fool?

Can we also say over the last three years combined Michigan has had the best DL performance?

Now to show the real issue with these calls, show each teams’s effective pressure statistics. Then you’ll see how the team with the highest pressure rating is getting the lowest calls....

Can we also see the comparison to how many offensive holding calls get called against our Oline? That disparity is also likely

One last important stat would be to show each team’s own offensive hold calls per hundred plays then contrast that HPHP vs when they played Michigan. I think you’ll see a lot of schools with nearly a 1.0 HPHP be closer to .5 when they play us.

Typically when the better team is piling on the points, refs will often give out sympathy calls so the score doesn’t get out of hand. Easiest way to do that is with holding calls. I think the by-team data tends to support that. And Brown’s defense is aggressive to the point of “take no prisoners” which Refs tend to hate. You add the fact that Harbaugh complained a lot his first two years, especially in 2016, and you can see how the officiating community turned on him a bit. No stats to back this up, just tons of games coached in youth football and basketball. Officials hate to be called out publicly and often sympathize with the underdog.