B1G Hates Us Theory - Motive?

[djw004]

It's always been talked about, and I'm seeing more and more steam behind this idea that the B1G hates us.

I was sharing with my Cockeye buddy at work the discrepancy in penalties in Nebraska games vs others, the fact we went 3 years without a holding call in our favor, then separately 377 defensive straight snaps without a holding call in our favor. More recently the discrepancy in our 1st half of Colorado vs our 2nd half of Colorado, the amount of chunk TD plays that get called back to the point where I don't get excited when I see a 40+ yd TD because I know it's coming back for something, Illinois clearly having some significant officiating issues as evidenced by Rhule, who I believe is measured and not a "hold a grudge" guy", still referencing it after a win a week later. Purdon't game has that phantom call on Fidone that pulls Rahmir's TD off the board...that's what I can't get over is how many scoring plays come back and then we crumble under that frustration.

He, in my estimation, brought up a good point that I haven't asked myself - what is the motive of the B1G to blatantly keep Nebraska down? Everyone wins when we are better in his estimation, which I believe to be true. So, wise investigators of the Board, what IS the motive? Best I've come up with is Vegas win total was counting on us starting hot and not dropping a game to Illinois or Purdon't, and there being so much fan support and money on DONU over on wins. I believe that officiating played a big role in that Illinois game even getting to OT, and I believe that we are head and shoulders better than Purdon't but get multiple big plays pulled off the board that would separate and only won comfortably because of a defensive TD, and just hammering the fuck out of Purdon't to close out the game.

*Disclaimer: None of this means that I think we are a perfect team and don't need to rise above poor officiating so fuck off with that comment, please and thank you.

 

[greybeardedchild]

 

[iruletheskool]

B1G refs are just bad. It aint us

 

[Mr.Bojangles]

It's always been talked about, and I'm seeing more and more steam behind this idea that the B1G hates us.

I was sharing with my Cockeye buddy at work the discrepancy in penalties in Nebraska games vs others, the fact we went 3 years without a holding call in our favor, then separately 377 defensive straight snaps without a holding call in our favor. More recently the discrepancy in our 1st half of Colorado vs our 2nd half of Colorado, the amount of chunk TD plays that get called back to the point where I don't get excited when I see a 40+ yd TD because I know it's coming back for something, Illinois clearly having some significant officiating issues as evidenced by Rhule, who I believe is measured and not a "hold a grudge" guy", still referencing it after a win a week later. Purdon't game has that phantom call on Fidone that pulls Rahmir's TD off the board...that's what I can't get over is how many scoring plays come back and then we crumble under that frustration.

He, in my estimation, brought up a good point that I haven't asked myself - what is the motive of the B1G to blatantly keep Nebraska down? Everyone wins when we are better in his estimation, which I believe to be true. So, wise investigators of the Board, what IS the motive? Best I've come up with is Vegas win total was counting on us starting hot and not dropping a game to Illinois or Purdon't, and there being so much fan support and money on DONU over on wins. I believe that officiating played a big role in that Illinois game even getting to OT, and I believe that we are head and shoulders better than Purdon't but get multiple big plays pulled off the board that would separate and only won comfortably because of a defensive TD, and just hammering the fuck out of Purdon't to close out the game.

*Disclaimer: None of this means that I think we are a perfect team and don't need to rise above poor officiating so fuck off with that comment, please and thank you.

What do you have a Cockeye buddy for?

 

[djw004]

What do you have a Cockeye buddy for?

Just part of the territory I've poorly chosen to live...shoot me...

 

[djw004]

B1G refs are just bad. It aint us

But we do consistently have various statistical anomalies - i.e. the 3 years of no holds, 377 snaps without a hold call in our favor...etc. This past weekend we played in another outlier for the week - do we just consistently get a shit crew? Or top to bottom is shit and I should shut up?

 

[HerbRedman]

B1G refs are just bad. It aint us

Correct. Maybe some early stuff. The no holding calls were legit (we also had bad pass rushers). Also, maybe some smoke there with the refs maybe hating Frost. And when you're team is undisciplined you don't get the benefit of the doubt (you don't get calls).



There's no bias now. B1G refs just fucked over Minnesota. Every other team hates the refs just like Nebraska does. B1G refs just blow. They are too flag happy as I've said millions of times.

Beyond that, my theory is that the only 'bias' you see is game to game by a specific ref team. Specifically if that ref team has a problem with a particularly disrespectful HC. We saw this in the Big 12 w Bo Pelini - certain ref teams got tired of Bo's screaming and they started giving him very few 50-50 calls. Bo earned that for his players.

This is where it's good to have Rhule. I believe Rhule is very respectful of the refs and I believe they don't have a problem with him. He might have an issue with this last red crew but honestly they are going to get such a terrible rating after this game that they won't be in position to make some biased calls (they're already on borrowed time).

 

[lee_carvallo_12]

I get all the logic and monetary reasons for the B1G move but I fucking hate the B1G. Retarded stupid conference. Let’s just fast forward to two mega conferences, likely the SEC and the B1G, with regionalized divisions that essentially puts us back in the old Big 8.

 

[alt f4]

I can make my post a pretty lengthy post because I have a lot of inside knowledge and experience with this. I'll try to keep it short.

Colorado game had Big 12 officials, not BIG officials.

I will say, there isn't an overall conspiracy or hate against Nebraska by the BIG. Conference wide and even across college football, both small college and major D1, and into high school and youth football ranks the reason for poor officiating is experience. I know and have worked with several BIG officials. There are extremely good officials and what I'd call pretty poor officials in college right now.

The biggest issue is experience, we're seeing younger and less experienced officials in college. My generation (40-50 y/o) doesn't have a large number of officials on any level and that starts in high school all the way up to college. This age range you'd see 15+ years of officiating experience, with probably 10+ of college, if they pursued it. There was an official, who did Nebraska spring game, who had 1-2 years of college experience. This guy struggled and I mentioned to my dad I would have him spotting the ball on my high school crew. He's hired in the BIG this year. Overall, newly hired major D1 officials have very little college experience.

I'll skip mostly over DEI hiring, but this goes with the experience category. There was a major push to get female and black officials across D1, which caused fast tracking of officials through lower college and lower D1 conferences to get them into the major conferences. Some with less than 5 years total offiicating experience from high school to college.

It took me around 2-3 years of Class A to feel comfortable with NAIA. It took me several years of NAIA and a couple years of Nebraska practices and scrimmages to feel comfortable with Nebraska's 1's scrimmages. That was without the pressures of crowds, crowd noise, TV, media, grading, and games on the line. I think it was around years 8-9 of officiating that I finally was comfortable with the speed and complexity of a Nebraska scrimmage.

The crews Nebraska has been assigned to the in the past several years were lower ranking BIG crews. Crews are assigned by games with a regional thought in mind. Major games with ranked teams will get the #1 or #2, maybe #3 crew regardless of region. Games like Nebraska vs Purdue will get a crew from the region that is in the lower half of the conference.

A final thing is what conferences are focusing on for the year. BIG and NCAA is focusing on Offensive Pass Interference this year. With that officials are seeking this out more and with inexperienced, lower ranked officials, they'll incorrectly call this because they haven't seen it before.

From field level the game looks entirely different than TV angles. Without talking to the official who threw Fidone's OPI, I know what he saw, the "belt" is his key (LOS to 10 yards downfield), he came to this action late, and saw a displaced defender and Fidone turned sideways, his assumption that it was a foul. Inexperience, pressure of not missing an OPI contributed to this. He probably errors more on the side of not wanting a missed call and will take an incorrect call when graded, especially since the focus is OPI.

There will be bias against certain coaches and official's thresholds will be lower vs those teams. I'll admit there are coaches that walking into the game we knew were going to be a headache and bitch nonstop. I've thrown flags against their team I likely wouldn't have thrown in a different game. Same is true with coaches that are the best to work with and enjoyable. They'll get those 50/50 calls.

 

[cwessel76]

Correct. Maybe some early stuff. The no holding calls were legit (we also had bad pass rushers). Also, maybe some smoke there with the refs maybe hating Frost. And when you're team is undisciplined you don't get the benefit of the doubt (you don't get calls).



There's no bias now. B1G refs just fucked over Minnesota. Every other team hates the refs just like Nebraska does. B1G refs just blow. They are too flag happy as I've said millions of times.

Beyond that, my theory is that the only 'bias' you see is game to game by a specific ref team. Specifically if that ref team has a problem with a particularly disrespectful HC. We saw this in the Big 12 w Bo Pelini - certain ref teams got tired of Bo's screaming and they started giving him very few 50-50 calls. Bo earned that for his players.

This is where it's good to have Rhule. I believe Rhule is very respectful of the refs and I believe they don't have a problem with him. He might have an issue with this last red crew but honestly they are going to get such a terrible rating after this game that they won't be in position to make some biased calls (they're already on borrowed time).

Virginia Tech also got buttfucked by the ACC refs. I think it’s a systemic issue at this point.

 

[2010sarenevercomingback]

I assumed it was the coaches for a long time. Especially Pelini & Frost being dudes the zebras probably disliked personally. Then our leadership directly defying KEVIN-19 & his shutdown jihad probably had a negative vibe emanating from every corner of the B1G office towards NU.

But now we have maybe the most personable coach in CFB, there's different conference & university leadership, and it still seems like we're getting a greater-than-average amount of bad/non-calls, when you'd expect them to break somewhat evenly with officiating that was just inept.

 

[djw004]

I can make my post a pretty lengthy post because I have a lot of inside knowledge and experience with this. I'll try to keep it short.

Colorado game had Big 12 officials, not BIG officials.

I will say, there isn't an overall conspiracy or hate against Nebraska by the BIG. Conference wide and even across college football, both small college and major D1, and into high school and youth football ranks the reason for poor officiating is experience. I know and have worked with several BIG officials. There are extremely good officials and what I'd call pretty poor officials in college right now.

The biggest issue is experience, we're seeing younger and less experienced officials in college. My generation (40-50 y/o) doesn't have a large number of officials on any level and that starts in high school all the way up to college. This age range you'd see 15+ years of officiating experience, with probably 10+ of college, if they pursued it. There was an official, who did Nebraska spring game, who had 1-2 years of college experience. This guy struggled and I mentioned to my dad I would have him spotting the ball on my high school crew. He's hired in the BIG this year. Overall, newly hired major D1 officials have very little college experience.

I'll skip mostly over DEI hiring, but this goes with the experience category. There was a major push to get female and black officials across D1, which caused fast tracking of officials through lower college and lower D1 conferences to get them into the major conferences. Some with less than 5 years total offiicating experience from high school to college.

It took me around 2-3 years of Class A to feel comfortable with NAIA. It took me several years of NAIA and a couple years of Nebraska practices and scrimmages to feel comfortable with Nebraska's 1's scrimmages. That was without the pressures of crowds, crowd noise, TV, media, grading, and games on the line. I think it was around years 8-9 of officiating that I finally was comfortable with the speed and complexity of a Nebraska scrimmage.

The crews Nebraska has been assigned to the in the past several years were lower ranking BIG crews. Crews are assigned by games with a regional thought in mind. Major games with ranked teams will get the #1 or #2, maybe #3 crew regardless of region. Games like Nebraska vs Purdoodoo will get a crew from the region that is in the lower half of the conference.

A final thing is what conferences are focusing on for the year. BIG and NCAA is focusing on Offensive Pass Interference this year. With that officials are seeking this out more and with inexperienced, lower ranked officials, they'll incorrectly call this because they haven't seen it before.

From field level the game looks entirely different than TV angles. Without talking to the official who threw Fidone's OPI, I know what he saw, the "belt" is his key (LOS to 10 yards downfield), he came to this action late, and saw a displaced defender and Fidone turned sideways, his assumption that it was a foul. Inexperience, pressure of not missing an OPI contributed to this. He probably errors more on the side of not wanting a missed call and will take an incorrect call when graded, especially since the focus is OPI.

There will be bias against certain coaches and official's thresholds will be lower vs those teams. I'll admit there are coaches that walking into the game we knew were going to be a headache and bitch nonstop. I've thrown flags against their team I likely wouldn't have thrown in a different game. Same is true with coaches that are the best to work with and enjoyable. They'll get those 50/50 calls.

Thanks so much @alt f4 - I was hoping you'd weigh in. Always appreciate your perspective. This is well laid out - fascinating to hear how little experience is being required at time of hire. I wasn't aware of the OPI focal point

I'm curious - from a refs perspective - when they roll out focal points, do you roll your eyes because you know you're going to be hounded by superiors for not calling it? Or do you like having points of emphasis because it gives you specific things that are noted to watch out for going in? Have they ever tried "calling a completely good game" as a point of emphasis if points of emphasis work so well?

 

[HuskerDocCo]

I can make my post a pretty lengthy post because I have a lot of inside knowledge and experience with this. I'll try to keep it short.

Colorado game had Big 12 officials, not BIG officials.

I will say, there isn't an overall conspiracy or hate against Nebraska by the BIG. Conference wide and even across college football, both small college and major D1, and into high school and youth football ranks the reason for poor officiating is experience. I know and have worked with several BIG officials. There are extremely good officials and what I'd call pretty poor officials in college right now.

The biggest issue is experience, we're seeing younger and less experienced officials in college. My generation (40-50 y/o) doesn't have a large number of officials on any level and that starts in high school all the way up to college. This age range you'd see 15+ years of officiating experience, with probably 10+ of college, if they pursued it. There was an official, who did Nebraska spring game, who had 1-2 years of college experience. This guy struggled and I mentioned to my dad I would have him spotting the ball on my high school crew. He's hired in the BIG this year. Overall, newly hired major D1 officials have very little college experience.

I'll skip mostly over DEI hiring, but this goes with the experience category. There was a major push to get female and black officials across D1, which caused fast tracking of officials through lower college and lower D1 conferences to get them into the major conferences. Some with less than 5 years total offiicating experience from high school to college.

It took me around 2-3 years of Class A to feel comfortable with NAIA. It took me several years of NAIA and a couple years of Nebraska practices and scrimmages to feel comfortable with Nebraska's 1's scrimmages. That was without the pressures of crowds, crowd noise, TV, media, grading, and games on the line. I think it was around years 8-9 of officiating that I finally was comfortable with the speed and complexity of a Nebraska scrimmage.

The crews Nebraska has been assigned to the in the past several years were lower ranking BIG crews. Crews are assigned by games with a regional thought in mind. Major games with ranked teams will get the #1 or #2, maybe #3 crew regardless of region. Games like Nebraska vs Purdoodoo will get a crew from the region that is in the lower half of the conference.

A final thing is what conferences are focusing on for the year. BIG and NCAA is focusing on Offensive Pass Interference this year. With that officials are seeking this out more and with inexperienced, lower ranked officials, they'll incorrectly call this because they haven't seen it before.

From field level the game looks entirely different than TV angles. Without talking to the official who threw Fidone's OPI, I know what he saw, the "belt" is his key (LOS to 10 yards downfield), he came to this action late, and saw a displaced defender and Fidone turned sideways, his assumption that it was a foul. Inexperience, pressure of not missing an OPI contributed to this. He probably errors more on the side of not wanting a missed call and will take an incorrect call when graded, especially since the focus is OPI.

There will be bias against certain coaches and official's thresholds will be lower vs those teams. I'll admit there are coaches that walking into the game we knew were going to be a headache and bitch nonstop. I've thrown flags against their team I likely wouldn't have thrown in a different game. Same is true with coaches that are the best to work with and enjoyable. They'll get those 50/50 calls.

thanks Larry but that ref still needs to die

 

[SlumpBuster]

I don't have any belief that we are a target (at least not anymore). I think that's not a good look on our fanbase that we peddle that.

Ability leads to a discrepancy of penalties and we've been pretty bad and pretty undisciplined. Every team gets bad calls.


That being said, I do believe there was some anti bias both leaving the B12 and entering the B1G. The B12 was mad we were leaving (or at least one particular crew) and made sure we didn't win the league on our way out and take the trophy with us.

The B1G on the other hand has this super weird "old guard" clique mentality of "one of us" that I don't think some of the core teams will ever get over. There are legit people in the B1G doesn't even consider PSU part of the league, let alone the teams that have joined since.

So there may have been some bias stemming from that.

The only other thing was Nebraska wanting to play football in 2020 and kind of forcing the leagues hand. They don't like to be manipulated and I think that pissed a ton of people off.

 

[HerbRedman]

Virginia Tech also got buttfucked by the ACC refs. I think it’s a systemic issue at this point.

Here's the problem...everyone bitches about the refs and now no one wants to be a ref.

I've got a friend here in WA that is 64 yrs old. Still refs WA HS FB games. He says it's gotten so bad, their entire pool of refs is like 50% of what it needs to be. And average age is like 60. No one wants to be a referee anymore, mainly bc we've vilified the role for the last 20 yrs. He says there are zero younger guys coming along who want to learn it. It's all the same recycled 60 yr old crews. They have to ref HS games with one less guy due to the shortage. It's a real problem.

They get attacked at youth sports games & it goes viral etc.

We're continuing to bitch about refs but it's actually adding to the problem because now no one wants to be one.

 

[Sous Chef]

It's always been talked about, and I'm seeing more and more steam behind this idea that the B1G hates us.

I was sharing with my Cockeye buddy at work the discrepancy in penalties in Nebraska games vs others, the fact we went 3 years without a holding call in our favor, then separately 377 defensive straight snaps without a holding call in our favor. More recently the discrepancy in our 1st half of Colorado vs our 2nd half of Colorado, the amount of chunk TD plays that get called back to the point where I don't get excited when I see a 40+ yd TD because I know it's coming back for something, Illinois clearly having some significant officiating issues as evidenced by Rhule, who I believe is measured and not a "hold a grudge" guy", still referencing it after a win a week later. Purdon't game has that phantom call on Fidone that pulls Rahmir's TD off the board...that's what I can't get over is how many scoring plays come back and then we crumble under that frustration.

He, in my estimation, brought up a good point that I haven't asked myself - what is the motive of the B1G to blatantly keep Nebraska down? Everyone wins when we are better in his estimation, which I believe to be true. So, wise investigators of the Board, what IS the motive? Best I've come up with is Vegas win total was counting on us starting hot and not dropping a game to Illinois or Purdon't, and there being so much fan support and money on DONU over on wins. I believe that officiating played a big role in that Illinois game even getting to OT, and I believe that we are head and shoulders better than Purdon't but get multiple big plays pulled off the board that would separate and only won comfortably because of a defensive TD, and just hammering the fuck out of Purdon't to close out the game.

*Disclaimer: None of this means that I think we are a perfect team and don't need to rise above poor officiating so fuck off with that comment, please and thank you.

The best explanation I've heard is that Delaney and the other B1G higher ups felt like Nebraska pulled a fast one with the Academic research stuff. I always forget what its called..AAU or some such. Anyway we needed that to join the Big Ten and then promptly lost it about the same time the ink was drying on the contracts for the move. That's also why the big push for us to get it back. There is legit concern the B1G would ask us to leave as it is a part of their qualifications to join/be in this conference. This is something that I read when Blo was still the coach but it did make sense at the time...sort of. It has nothing to do with betting or Vegas.

 

[Mavsker]

The best explanation I've heard is that Delaney and the other B1G higher ups felt like Nebraska pulled a fast one with the Academic research stuff. I always forget what its called..AAU or some such. Anyway we needed that to join the Big Ten and then promptly lost it about the same time the ink was drying on the contracts for the move. That's also why the big push for us to get it back. There is legit concern the B1G would ask us to leave as it is a part of their qualifications to join/be in this conference. This is something that I read when Blo was still the coach but it did make sense at the time...sort of. It has nothing to do with betting or Vegas.

Well Michigan and Wisconsin voted us out. Maybe refs should target them instead?

 

[djw004]

The B1G on the other hand has this super weird "old guard" clique mentality of "one of us" that I don't think some of the core teams will ever get over. There are legit people in the B1G doesn't even consider PSU part of the league, let alone the teams that have joined since.

This is my Cockeye friend to a T. Constantly talks about State Penn not being a B1G school - I never even know they weren't in the B1G haha...

 

[HerbRedman]

The best explanation I've heard is that Delaney and the other B1G higher ups felt like Nebraska pulled a fast one with the Academic research stuff.

They knew UNL was getting kicked out before and they could have pulled the plug on NU but didn't.

I don't think Delaney GAF about academics.

 

[Sous Chef]

They knew UNL was getting kicked out before and they could have pulled the plug on NU but didn't.

I don't think Delaney GAF about academics.

Not even remotely true about Delaney