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.
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.