Big East Refs to be Used for Notre Dame-Michigan Game
by Eric Murtaugh on Jul 20, 2011 3:14 PM EDT
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In an unprecedented move, Michigan has agreed to allow Notre Dame to bring their "home" Big East officials for the September 10th matchup between the Fighting Irish and Wolverines.
Apparently this is sort of a big deal.
Both Blue and Gold Illusrated and SBN Indiana have already broke the good news.
This marks the first time ever that Michigan will host a non-conference game inside their stadium without their cheating Big Ten referees.
Kudos to Jack Swarbrick for getting this done. He continues to dominate the world of college athletic directors.
Swarbrick's face when asked about 2009 Michigan game officiating.
Of course this news comes as a relief to the Notre Dame fans (and anyone who hates seeing terrible, inconsistent, and borderline scandalous referring) who witnessed the debacle that was the 2009 Irish game at Michigan Stadium.
And we're not bringing this up to make false claims and get the Wolverine fan base to be like, "Durr, durr...sore losers, durr durr."
We do so because it was the worst officiated game perhaps in Notre Dame history and that can never be lived down. That game included:
- Numerous suspect holding calls.
- Suspect holding call that brought back a long Kyle Rudolph reception.
- The replay turnover that brought back Armando Allen's long touchdown on not-so-conclusive evidence.
- Blatant pass interference all day long on the Irish receivers, with UM secondary players apparently seeking to rip Golden Tate's arm off when ball is in flight.
- No penalty assessed for a Jonas Mouton uppercut punch to Eric Olsen's throat after the conclusion of a play.
- But of course a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty on Armando Allen for "shushing" the crowd with his finger after scoring a two-point conversion that put Notre Dame up by 3 in the 4th quarter.
- And just to cap it off, the clock mysteriously winding down on the last kickoff without a Notre Dame player touching the ball.
So we should rejoice that the Big Ten referees won't be participating and that the head ref is no longer a resident of Ann Arbor. Then again, the replay officials will still be from the Big Ten.
Vegas should post the odds of a super controversial Irish touchdown being overturned by replay right now.
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Why is there conference affiliation with referees again?
Not sure if the Big East officials are that much of a step up, but I would take anything over what we saw in the 2009 game at the Big House. Which leads to my question above…
I should answer your question with a question
Why are there conferences again?
Seriously though, you make a good point. The Big East isn’t much of a step up as you say, and they are clearly not “our” refs.
It’s one of the more stupid things in college football that we have conference referees.
Sky rockets in flight.
by Eric Murtaugh on Jul 20, 2011 5:19 PM EDT up reply actions
YES
NCAA is too wrapped up in who sold pants for tattoos, which I grant is important, but if they ever get around to worrying about what goes on during the actual game again, this is a change I would support. It’s a problem in all conferences—Nebraska got jobbed by the refs against Texas 2 years ago, and it was fairly obvious that the Big 12 wanted undefeated Texas to make it through to the NC game. SEC refs always slide calls to whichever team has the best shot to finish undefeated and go to the NC game. All of the BCS conferences slide calls to favor certain teams—and I don’t mean always this particular team, but you better believe that if a conferences has one team headed towards the NC it will get calls, and if it has a second team eligible for the BCS it will get calls, in order to guarantee 2 BCS paychecks.
鳴かぬなら殺してしまえ、ほととぎす
Notre Dame Fighting Irish by birth and undergraduate degree
U. Hawaii Warrior because the government pays my grad school tuition
by Kelly's Gyros on Jul 21, 2011 2:13 AM EDT up reply actions
Remember that Florida game from a couple years ago?
The refs weren’t even trying to hide their bias. UF was in line for the national championship and the officials were doing any and everything to try and get the Gators back into the game and seal a victory.
Sky rockets in flight.
by Eric Murtaugh on Jul 21, 2011 7:15 AM EDT up reply actions
You know, outsiders seem to think that Notre Dame gets favored all the time. They seem to think Notre Dame gets special privilege with the BCS, when in fact it’s harder for Notre Dame to make it to a BCS bowl because they have no conference tie-in and thus must finish in the top-6 to automatically qualify (whereas a 15th ranked ACC team can win the conference and qualify that way).
And I’m sure outsiders think referees favor Notre Dame all the time. In fact, Notre Dame has been getting the short end of the stick for a couple of years now. You mention the 2009 Michigan game, which had a phantom holding call bring back a big reception by Kyle Rudolph, and an Armando Allen TD brought back on inconclusive evidence. How about the Pitt game later that year, when Clausen’s arm is going forward, the call on the field is an incomplete pass, and yet replay officials overturned the call and ruled it a fumble? Words cannot describe how mad I was at the conclusion of that game.
And then there was the mother of all screwjobs. WWE has the Montreal Screwjob, and Notre Dame has the East Lansing Screwjob, in which Michigan St. snaps the ball after the play clock has expired (which, for those learning the game, is a delay of game penalty) and completes a fake field goal to win In OT. I myself was watching the play clock, saw it run down to zero with no snap, and kept waiting for a whistle to bring it back. Then Michigan St. was celebrating…and there’s no call…and everyone is charging the field…and I’m in stunned disbelief that my team just lost on a fake field goal that happened after the play clock expired. I have the picture still saved on my computer, a still photo of the play clock reading zero and the ball not yet having been snapped.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I still consider last year’s game at Michigan St. a victory. That was bogus what happened, and they should have been forced to kick a 50 yard field goal. Which, by the way, I’m confident they would have missed. Why do you think Dantonio called for a fake to begin with? Because he didn’t think his kicker could hit from 45. I’m confident he wouldn’t hit from 50 either.
I have an idea...
I can’t stand it when soccer players stop playing when they think there’s an offsides.
But wouldn’t it have “sold” that MSU fake field goal if our team was trained to just start walking off the field or celebrating wildly once the clock hit zero? Obviously no coach would do that but it would have been funny to see it happen.
Sky rockets in flight.
Perhaps this year
there wont be that mind blowing call of..“roughing the snapper.” Where does that come from…sandlot ball….has that ever been called.
Was that penalty from the 2009 game too?
Sky rockets in flight.
by Eric Murtaugh on Jul 21, 2011 8:24 AM EDT up reply actions
So then Big East refs? Ugh.
Swarbrick should pull off having us carry our own Notre Dame refs. Screw independent refs!
/dealwithit.gif
Sky rockets in flight.
by Eric Murtaugh on Jul 21, 2011 8:56 AM EDT up reply actions
There was also a play last year
against Michigan where we stopped them on 3rd down (I believe) and the ref gave them an egregious spot literally 2 yards further down field for the 1st down.
As you would expect, not a peep from NBC on that one. Just Hammond exclaiming excitedly, “First down!!!”
…even though the runner needed three yards and was dropped at the line.
Sky rockets in flight.
by Eric Murtaugh on Jul 21, 2011 10:24 AM EDT up reply actions
I remember that play.
The more I think about the “roughing the snapper”, I’m not sure if it was last year or 09….bummer to get old…get those alzehimer moments.
2 Things...
1) If one needs further evidence that this bias exists, they need look no further than a few years back vs. Pitt when they needed the game to be bowl eligible. The Irish took it hard from that crew on several critical judgement calls. Officials are paid by conferences. Conferences get paid by the number of bowl eligible teams in that conference. It isn’t any wonder why the road team brings ref’s with them. A non-conf will is precious to a conference’s bank account. This is a BIG step in the right direction.
2) Who is handling replays for this game? Will it be BE officials at the end of replay decisions, or will those be staffed by B10 officials? That needs to be addressed as well (evidenced by the Allen overturn).
Big Ten officials in the replay booth
“Then again, the replay officials will still be from the Big Ten. Vegas should post the odds of a super controversial Irish touchdown being overturned by replay right now.”
Sky rockets in flight.
by Eric Murtaugh on Jul 21, 2011 11:28 AM EDT up reply actions
Not sure why you'd want to verify that....
鳴かぬなら殺してしまえ、ほととぎす
Notre Dame Fighting Irish by birth and undergraduate degree
U. Hawaii Warrior because the government pays my grad school tuition
by Kelly's Gyros on Jul 22, 2011 1:17 AM EDT up reply actions
What are you trying to say?
Sky rockets in flight.
by Eric Murtaugh on Jul 22, 2011 7:19 AM EDT up reply actions
I must disagree with your caption, Mr. Murtaugh
I believe that the above photograph captured Mr. Swarbrick’s reaction when he was told that South Dining Hall had run out of a delicacy called Peppered Flank Steak.
Mouth Of The South
by Mouth of the South on Jul 21, 2011 2:20 PM EDT reply actions
You're alive MotS!
And in mid-season form.
Sky rockets in flight.
by Eric Murtaugh on Jul 21, 2011 2:45 PM EDT up reply actions
The rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Mouth Of The South
by Mouth of the South on Jul 21, 2011 4:24 PM EDT up reply actions
Or maybe he saw the line for General Tso's Chicken
/line snakes around card swipers
One Foot Down
On teh Twitterz
All joking aside, this just shows that Jack Swarbrick is our best AD since Moose Krause.
My guess is that this was part of an agreement between ND and Michigan some time ago (didn’t we extend the series with them in the last year?) but Michigan got us to agree not to announce this change until just before the season so as to avoid looking like they were dictated to by a small unknown private school in Indiana (I’m guessing that’s where they’d still like ND to be).
I agree with the posters who say that the 2009 game was one of the worst officiated games in a long, long time. I disagree with the posters who say this is a recent phenomenon. Just look at USC 1982, where ND had the lead in the last minute or so, and USC scored a touchdown on a goal line play at the end of the game to win it. ND players said they’d recovered a fumble that occurred before he crossed the goal line. Pictures showed the USC running back crossing the goal line … and the ball about a yard or two behind him, loose, and not crossing the goal line.
IF IT TAKES FOREVER!!
by Cubfansince1957 on Jul 23, 2011 12:07 AM EDT reply actions
Fuck Michigan
"Come render the salad unto Caesar"
by Publius2010 on Jul 24, 2011 12:45 AM EDT up reply actions
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