Greg Sankey on SEC officiating

[4Q Basket Case]

You know it's out of hand when the LSU fanbase isn't even denying systemic holding against Auburn. And Arkansas gets 0 holding calls (0 penalties of any kind, actually) against an Alabama team that's drilling them.

Auburn fans are crying (with justification) about the lack of holding against LSU, but say we deserve the lack of holding calls on our opponents because we're already beating them.

Never mind the self-serving logic on that last one. My point is that they get there from different directions, but Alabama, LSU and Auburn fans all agree that the officiating is systemically inaccurate.

One of my biggest pet peeves is people throwing rocks at a situation without offering solutions. So here's my proposal:

1. Make SEC officiating a full-time position. It needs to attract top talent, so starting pay is $100K a year, and goes up to $150K as a combination of experience and documented performance indicates.

At 8 refs per game, and a max of 7 games on any given weekend, that's 56 officials, or about $7M. Add benefits, alternate refs, the ones in Birmingham reviewing replays, etc., and it's still under $10M.

Sounds expensive, but that's about $700K per member per year. There isn't an SEC member who looks sideways at that amount of money for football.

Plus, it's not like the current system is free. That figure gives no offset for current expenditures. So the marginal cost is actually a lot less.

2. We already have an evaluation system. Make suspensions, re-training, reassignments, etc., public. I'm pretty sure coaches already know when that happens. This is for the benefit of the fans. You want to improve the fan experience? Give them some transparency into the officiating. As it is, we have about as much faith in officials as we do in politicians.

3. Subject to the evaluation system and consequences of sub-par performance, make each officiating crew a fixed team. It's clear that the current method of a different mix each week isn't working. Like a good offensive line, it's a team effort. If they work together, they get better as a team.

Make it a full-time job. Make crews as static as possible. Make disciplinary actions public.

Any thoughts out there for other / better improvements?

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

Another subjective call that could be made more black or white is wether the ground caused a fumble or not. Who cares? If you changed the rules to “losing possession of the ball before the play is blown dead is a fumble”....that would be much easier for referees to get right.

Uh, NO!!! The ground cannot cause a fumble. That rule has ALWAYS been in the rule book. Changing that one would give more opportunity for the rotten refs to affect the outcome even more than they do now.

 

[B1GTide]

Any thoughts out there for other / better improvements?

I think that Cajun's thoughts about involving technology in this is critical. Allow officials not on the field to call obvious penalties that are not seen by officials on the field, and allow them to overturn penalties called on the field when it is obvious that the flag was thrown in error. The notion that officiating mistakes are just a part of the game and have to be accepted, like bad weather, is dated. A call on the field can and should be overturned in real time if it is obviously wrong. We have the technology. Invest it it.

If two officials on the field see different things, they discuss it and a flag can be picked up or thrown based on that discussion. Why not include some officials with access to technology in those discussions?

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

Yes, all D1 officials are graded on every play. Not just fouls and no calls but also mechanics and positioning, spots, penalty enforcement, catch/no catch, etc. There are approximately 180 plays each game with 7 officials reach having conservatively 10 things to observe each play. Add that up and there are 12k potential decisions the officials make in a game. Even if you cut that in half it's 6k. Now let's say they made 20 mistakes in as game which would be very high and create major outrage by fans and media rightly so. That's still 99% accuracy. Not too shabby.

I assume the reason they don't expose the grading is because it's a no win situation. If the call was determined incorrect and it went against your team it only creates more outrage. If the call was determined to be correct fans will assume they were covering up for the official and don't believe it. They've added rules experts to the booth and guys like Terry McAuley and Mike Pereira tweet times interps and fans lose their minds either way.

As a fan what kind of accountability do you want to see? The best of the best are working these games. If they are suspended someone below then will take their place. And where are they getting them from from? The people below them are working in other conferences. This movement takes place in the off-season but to do it in season would be difficult. Games are taken away and postseason assignments are the Holy Grail for officials. Not getting one is devastating especially for D1 officials (they have a lot more postseason opportunities than small college guys).

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Great points!

The solution is quite simple...add another On-Field Official. :cool2:

 

[jashleyren2]

That's UMich1's research. I referenced it in the other thread where officiating came up, the LSU v. AU thread. Unfortunately, his hosting on his graphs has disappeared. They were amazing. Bama's dot was way off the Y axis by itself. It's really something to hear UM fans discussing how Bama's discriminated against. As I said in the other thread, it's a built-in disadvantage we have to overcome in every game and the stats prove it. And then you have all of our opponents saying we get all the calls. Ridiculous!

Thank you for giving more detail on the origination of the data report. It's clear when you watch as much football, particularly Alabama, as I do. But outsiders who aren't Alabama fans will not be privy to it, and outright deny that it's a thing. But it is. And I can't help but think it's translating out to our defensive secondary. We are young, no doubt. But all the pass interference and defensive holding calls we are seeing in our secondary are also not accidental. Either our guys are truly doing it (yeah, some), or the refs are looking for it more.

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

I think for Power 5 games you have 6-8 officials watching from monitors in a room. Have 4-6 on the field to place the ball, move the chains, be near sidelines to record timeouts. And if the 6-8 see a penalty, push the yellow button which triggers a flag from the field officials.

Use tech to perfect it. But let trained officials watch instead of running around, being out of position, getting knocked down or assuming a penalty based on how it looked from their angle.

It's coming...no doubt about it. Maybe California should take the lead on that... :rolleye2:

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

Now that is an idea that I had not considered. With the tech that we have available today, we are assured of seeing improved officiating.

ETA - the only problem that I see is that the camera crews are paid by the networks. To be sure that you have correct angles to view certain penalties, they would need to stop following the ball on every play. So, you either need to add cameras somehow or get ready for fewer angles on important possession type calls.

The Conference can afford to do that themselves... :cool2:

 

[jashleyren2]

Along with an increase in accountability I would like a to see some sort of cross conference rotation. Some leagues seem to officials that call it one way and other conferences another.

I'd like to see more cross conference officiating crews, even make the crews NCAA employees, not league employees. That said, the travel costs I'm sure are part of the reason why we don't see this. Just for bowl games. And, to add, I guess we should all be careful what we ask for. Watching some crews in other conferences makes the sec crews look like 20/20 vision perfectionists.

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

I think that Cajun's thoughts about involving technology in this is critical. Allow officials not on the field to call obvious penalties that are not seen by officials on the field, and allow them to overturn penalties called on the field when it is obvious that the flag was thrown in error. The notion that officiating mistakes are just a part of the game and have to be accepted, like bad weather, is dated. A call on the field can and should be overturned in real time if it is obviously wrong. We have the technology. Invest it it.

If two officials on the field see different things, they discuss it and a flag can be picked up or thrown based on that discussion. Why not include some officials with access to technology in those discussions?

The only drawback to this is that it will add about an hour or so to a game... :rolleye2:

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

I'd like to see more cross conference officiating crews, even make the crews NCAA employees, not league employees. That said, the travel costs I'm sure are part of the reason why we don't see this. Just for bowl games. And, to add, I guess we should all be careful what we ask for. Watching some crews in other conferences makes the sec crews look like 20/20 vision perfectionists.

I know of a couple of SEC crews that should have a PERMANENT Cross Conference rotation... :cool2:

 

[B1GTide]

The only drawback to this is that it will add about an hour or so to a game... :rolleye2:

Not if they do it right. The "camera" officials would have the ability to jump in on the headsets that the officials are already wearing to communicate with one another. They become a part of the discussion, adding input in real time. The official running the crew would have the last call after listening to all of the feedback just as he does today. No need to go to a "review". It just becomes part of the flow of the game.

 

[gman4tide]

My math probably isn't as good as some but, 180 plays a game..7 officials making/missing 20 errors = 140 misses/errors. That'd be 11% errors/official or 77.8% error total for game. 22% correct call rate. That's failing.

 

[bigjue24]

You know it's out of hand when the LSU fanbase isn't even denying systemic holding against Auburn. And Arkansas gets 0 holding calls (0 penalties of any kind, actually) against an Alabama team that's drilling them.

Auburn fans are crying (with justification) about the lack of holding against LSU, but say we deserve the lack of holding calls on our opponents because we're already beating them.

Never mind the self-serving logic on that last one. My point is that they get there from different directions, but Alabama, LSU and Auburn fans all agree that the officiating is systemically inaccurate.

One of my biggest pet peeves is people throwing rocks at a situation without offering solutions. So here's my proposal:

1. Make SEC officiating a full-time position. It needs to attract top talent, so starting pay is $100K a year, and goes up to $150K as a combination of experience and documented performance indicates.

At 8 refs per game, and a max of 7 games on any given weekend, that's 56 officials, or about $7M. Add benefits, alternate refs, the ones in Birmingham reviewing replays, etc., and it's still under $10M.

Sounds expensive, but that's about $700K per member per year. There isn't an SEC member who looks sideways at that amount of money for football.

Plus, it's not like the current system is free. That figure gives no offset for current expenditures. So the marginal cost is actually a lot less.

2. We already have an evaluation system. Make suspensions, re-training, reassignments, etc., public. I'm pretty sure coaches already know when that happens. This is for the benefit of the fans. You want to improve the fan experience? Give them some transparency into the officiating. As it is, we have about as much faith in officials as we do in politicians.

3. Subject to the evaluation system and consequences of sub-par performance, make each officiating crew a fixed team. It's clear that the current method of a different mix each week isn't working. Like a good offensive line, it's a team effort. If they work together, they get better as a team.

Make it a full-time job. Make crews as static as possible. Make disciplinary actions public.

Any thoughts out there for other / better improvements?

This is some good stuff. I've wondered forever why a sport that generates the level of money that it does can't have full time officials. They want to have a side hustle in the offseason who cares, but reffing is the main money maker, and them getting it right because they will be fired and lose a really good job makes people raise their level of performance.

 

[Tug Tide]

I'd like to see more cross conference officiating crews, even make the crews NCAA employees, not league employees. That said, the travel costs I'm sure are part of the reason why we don't see this. Just for bowl games. And, to add, I guess we should all be careful what we ask for. Watching some crews in other conferences makes the sec crews look like 20/20 vision perfectionists.

It’s not nearly as expensive add you may think. Say you make crews regional, instead of tied to a specific conference. Crew currently traveling to SEC can easily make that same trip to Tallahassee or Clemson for instance. If a crews performance is rated poorly send them to Conference USA games in the same region the next season. Make it sort of like the relegation system in soccer

 

[Titans&Tide]

Now that is an idea that I had not considered. With the tech that we have available today, we are assured of seeing improved officiating.

ETA - the only problem that I see is that the camera crews are paid by the networks. To be sure that you have correct angles to view certain penalties, they would need to stop following the ball on every play. So, you either need to add cameras somehow or get ready for fewer angles on important possession type calls.

This is easy. You combine the role of the replay official with the in-game monitoring officials. So you have three folks watching each play from above. One looks at the offensive backfield, one at the line of scrimmage, and one at the defensive backfield. All of the games have ISO cameras on certain areas. The booth refs can call penalties in realtime based on what they see. Instead of buzzing down from the booth after the play is over, put in a yellow light next to the play clock or game clock on the field. Heck, put it on the down markers if you want to. That way everyone knows a penalty has been called and it is adjudicated at the same speed as they are now. It wouldn't take a booth ref any longer to say "Holding on #74, he had his guy hooked" than it would for a field ref to say the same thing.

It also wouldn't take too long (like, a half of one game) for coaches to modify how they players play the game after getting flagged a little more frequently.

 

[colbysullivan]

Guys, they don’t care enough about making the right calls. They’re not going to put more technology in place just to get the call right. We already have plenty of replays and they still get the calls wrong. If anything, they want to shorten the game and are going to throw as few flags as possible, Hubert Owens notwithstanding.

 

[CrimsonNagus]

Well, adding more replay reviews will increase the number of commercial breaks. This increases ad revenue by having more spots to fill so, ESPN needs to get involved and demand more flags and reviews.

 

[teamplayer]

They could get rid of replay altogether, and I would be fine with that. I think the officials now are taught to be hesitant and to let plays continue too long before blowing a whistle because they think replay will have a chance to clean it up. Of course, it usually doesn't clean it up. Instead, it just takes away momentum of the game and still gets it wrong many times. Just get rid of it and let the officials call the game.

 

[IndyBison]

So you think that officials who screw up 20 big calls in a game deserve a 99 out of 100 on their grading sheet - an A+. Seriously, only an official could possibly think this way. Everyone else sees the impact of those 20 bad calls on the game and realizes that the crew failed. Grade - F. Why? Because it effected the outcome of the game, and the game is all that matters.

I never said 20 big calls were mistakes. Just 20 mistakes. And that is an exaggeration. There may be only 3-5 downgrades in most games. Most are minor and the impact on the game depends largely on when it happens and the result related to what happened. For example, with 7:00 minutes left in the 1st quarter an official rules a player out of bounds at the B43 resulting in 2nd and 8. When in reality his progress was stopped in bounds at the B42 and he was driven backward out of bounds. The clock will start again 4-6 seconds after the ball was declared dead but shouldn't have been stopped in the first place. And it should be 2nd and 7 instead of 2nd and 8. Neither of those are significant in the moment or impactful overall to the game. But the SAME mistake happens with 37 seconds in the game and the offense is down by 4 and it's more impactful. but from an officiating standpoint, it's the same mistake. The official didn't identify forward progress should have been ruled. The grade the official's going to get will be the same in either error, but they will face higher scrutiny on the latter because of the impact.

What kind of accountability do we hope for? Speaking for myself, I want to see officials fired who clearly see an impactful foul and fail to throw their flag. We have cameras everywhere now. We can see it when it happens. I want to see an official fired who clearly cannot see a foul and throws a flag anyway because he saw a player reaction and assumed that the foul must have taken place.

I believe this is where there is a disconnect. These comments assume the official intentionally sees something and ignores it because he doesn't care to get it right. No official ever intentionally gets a call wrong. If they do I guarantee you they are getting fired. There may be game situations where you pass on something because of time and score (i.e. that slight movement that would be a false start may be ignored when it's 52-0 with 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter). Calls or mechanics are wrong because an official didn't see all the action and passes rather than guesses what might have happened. Or because their focus was drawn to other action (I missed a hold on the left guard in a game because the right guard's helmet popped off and he began to continue to participate even though he needs to stop...hard to watch both players at the same time). Or because they are shielded from the action by other players. Or their eyes fooled them and what they saw and what actually happened are two different things. Or because they lost concentration for a split second and totally missed something. None of those are excusable and they will get downgraded for them. But you work and review and study to make sure you reduce or eliminate the reasons those happen.

It's not a great analogy but it would be like saying a QB sees his receiver wide open but throws it to an opposing player on purpose. That never happens either. A QB isn't going to be fired (benched/cut in this case) because he threw one bad interception. But if he does that enough he will be benched. You can do that with players because there are 5 or 6 other QBs on the team who can step in to replace him. There aren't 1 or 2 officials for each position sitting on the sideline waiting for their opportunity. They are working their game at LSU or Jacksonville State or University of the Cumberlands. If all a team had was their starting 22 players you couldn't replace them in game or in season very easily. For repeated mistakes they will pull someone from future games and use supplemental staff or pull someone up from a different conference but that is rare. From season to season though there could be turnover and new opportunities created for officials to advance.

Call what you see. Period. Nothing more, nothing less. If an official can't or won't do that - fire them. If they know they will get fired, they will stop with this crap and call the game straight. Players and coaches will have to get back to executing within the rules. The game will be better served.

I know you don't believe me and that's fine. You are entitled to your opinion and your opinion is not wrong. But you will be happy to know this is exactly how it happens. Good officials only call what they see and get in trouble when they justify it by using the words "I thought I saw". Angles are critical and judgement is a major factor. I learned a long time ago some calls aren't right or wrong. They are just calls. The Oklahoma-Kansas State onside kick is a great example. Did the OU player initiate the block or the did the KSU player? That's a judgement the official has to make on the field. Even when watching the replay you aren't going to get consensus on that from unbiased people looking at it on the same video.

Officials think that they are above the game. They are not. They are no more important than any piece of equipment designed to keep the players safe. Yes, necessary for play, but a whole lot less important than the players, coaches and fans. They need to be put back in their place. For that to happen, many will need to be fired for their incredible incompetence - replaced like a faulty piece of equipment.

Officials want to be as invisible as possible and do the best they can to call as clean of a game as possible. Putting them in front of the media after games explaining calls is counter to that. I always thought having officials on the broadcast would be a good thing. I enjoy it, but I don't believe it has helped fans that much. If they support the crew they are criticized for backing them to a fault. If they feel the call was incorrect it supports fans' opinion that officials are horrible. It's really a no-win situation. The same is true for Dean Blandino, Mike Pereira, and the new SEC Officiating Twitter account. And for me trying to provide information and perspective here. I don't expect you to agree with me, but I hope at least some people understand the officials are very focused on doing a good job and getting every call right.

 

[uafan4life]

Uh, NO!!! The ground cannot cause a fumble. That rule has ALWAYS been in the rule book. Changing that one would give more opportunity for the rotten refs to affect the outcome even more than they do now.

Wrong. Just. Wrong.

Both of you, actually, but the ground can absolutely cause a fumble.

If a ball-carrier makes only legal contact with the ground - with only his hands, feet, or the football - and the ground knocks the ball out of his hand it is a fumble.

It's quite rare because they almost always make contact with at least an elbow, forearm, or wrist and are therefore down by contact but it is possible.

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