Saturday, October 5, 2013

College football. Fair or fixed?

Though no TV game announcer will come right out and say it -- at least if he/she wants to still have a job the next day -- sometimes certain college football teams always seem to get the benefit of the doubt when a close call is involved.

Generally speaking, these are teams that have built up long, rich, and yes, winning traditions on the gridiron over the decades. Though they may or may not currently be national championship contenders, schools like Oklahoma, Texas, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Alabama, and USC come to mind, to name just a few. These are all big-time football schools, have been for a long time, and likely always will be.

It's as if they've earned a certain amount of entitlement over the years like, say, a Kobe Bryant. Whenever a bang-bang play happens that could be called either way -- it's a pretty safe bet the Black Mamba or Enormous U will have the call go their way. This is particularly true when a high-profile player or team is going up against an opponent without nearly the same name recognition. At home or on the road, reputation alone often seems to make the difference on how the officials make certain rulings. This is no big secret. Even after replays have proven a call wrong, many times the refs will refuse to change their minds, and the "favorite" once again prevails. Long time sports fans have seen it happen over and over again.

Idle thought: The Univ of Michigan seems to be an exception to the "chosen few". Though they've been playing sports longer than most schools have been in existence, and certainly have a winning tradition themselves -- for a big name school they continue to get the Rodney Dangerfield treatment -- at least nationally. When a close call in a big game is involved, it normally goes against the Wolverines. Perhaps the good folks in Ann Arbor might want to consider dialing back the huffing, puffing, chest-thrusting, smack-talking arrogance they're equally famous for. Hey Blue. Ever consider why you continue to get jobbed on crucial plays in big games? The rest of the world doesn't like your snooty attitude. Hello? Can you hear me now, Brady Hoke?

When two super-powers of college football collide at warp speed, all bets would seem to be off regarding which team will likely benefit most. But not so fast. There's a catch there too.

The officials themselves. We know them as "zebras". During the course of any football game we've seen 7 of them out on the field with their whistles and penalty flags at the ready. They have numbers on their backs like 38, 84, 106, whatever. They also have a letter to identify their position. R means referee. U means umpire. B means back judge, etc.

But what we never know is where these guys are from. Sure, they're supposed to be impartial, though I highly doubt they're subjected to polygraphs to occasionally verify their honesty, like maybe your average FBI or CIA agent. And after all, these guys have to come from SOMEWHERE.

A hypothetical example. If an official was born and raised in Nebraska, and was a hard-core fan of the Cornhuskers until finally signing up for "ref" school -- wherever that is -- would it be much of a stretch to assume if he was on the field and had to make a close call between his "former" beloved Huskers while they were playing his once hated Oklahoma Sooners -- which way that call would go?

Even earlier tonight, yours truly saw something similar afoot in the game between Ohio State and Northwestern. There were a few close calls that could have went either way. The Buckeyes got the benefit of them all. Turned out, they made the difference in the game. OSU won. Had a couple of those calls gone the Wildcats' way, Urban Meyer's Columbus boys would have limped home with a loss.

Their winning streak, currently the longest in major college football, would have been over. They likely would have tumbled in the polls and could kiss any national championship aspirations this year good-bye.

But all the questionable calls went their way when they needed them the most. Like some of the aforementioned "been there, done that", got a reputation schools -- Ohio State is very much a member of the same exclusive club. Though Northwestern arguably deserved to win the football game, for now they'll have to remain content with their status as the Big 10 school with far and away the highest academic standards. And imagine that. A university that is not only highly competitive in football, runs squeaky clean programs in all other sports -- and graduates most of it's student athletes on to successful careers. Obviously, they're doing something horribly wrong. No wonder they don't get any calls.

At that, in a post-game interview, OSU coach Urban Meyer was asked how his team pulled out a win under such difficult circumstances. Meyer replied it was all about playing solid football from start to finish.

Right Urban. And a little help from the refs didn't hurt either.

I still have a sneaking suspicion at least a couple of them grew up in Ohio.

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