Which sport has the worst officiating | Syracusefan.com

Which sport has the worst officiating

Newhouser

Hall of Fame
Joined
Jan 20, 2015
Messages
8,211
Like
15,621
College hoops, College football, NFL or NBA?

I watched more college hoops the last week than I have all season and I have to say the officiating in every game is dreadful. Just dreadful.
 
College hoops, College football, NFL or NBA?

I watched more college hoops the last week than I have all season and I have to say the officiating in every game is dreadful. Just dreadful.

College football seems like it has more arbitrary bad calls.

It's all stupid - middle aged plus men chasing around elite athletes moving faster than they can dream of.
 
College hoops, College football, NFL or NBA?

I watched more college hoops the last week than I have all season and I have to say the officiating in every game is dreadful. Just dreadful.

The fact that in football the ball is still marked by the human eye of a man, usually older, trying to keep up with premier athletes, is hilarious and ridiculous.

That alone makes it the worst, college and the NFL.
 
Anyone else here have any experience officiating hoops? And I don't mean being dragooned into action because the refs didn't show up at their daughter's biddy ball game? :)

No worries, I already know the answer, having posed the question here a time or two before. So I'll leave it with these two things. First, if it was that easy, everybody could do it. It's not, and they don't. So second, I encourage all to join your local association, read the rule book, attend the rookie clinic, learn your mechanics and floor coverage, write the exam, and get started. During the ten years I've been around here, I think only one person has ever taken me up on that. Which is too bad, because there are obviously so many good refs available out there. :)
 
Anyone else here have any experience officiating hoops? And I don't mean being dragooned into action because the refs didn't show up at their daughter's biddy ball game? :)

No worries, I already know the answer, having posed the question here a time or two before. So I'll leave it with these two things. First, if it was that easy, everybody could do it. It's not, and they don't. So second, I encourage all to join your local association, read the rule book, attend the rookie clinic, learn your mechanics and floor coverage, write the exam, and get started. During the ten years I've been around here, I think only one person has ever taken me up on that. Which is too bad, because there are obviously so many good refs available out there. :)

Reffed intramurals hoop at Cuse, ha. It truly isn't easy. Worse when you had athletes that weren't basketball players. They'd just beat the hell outta each other.
 
Reffed intramurals hoop at Cuse, ha. It truly isn't easy. Worse when you had athletes that weren't basketball players. They'd just beat the hell outta each other.

That's how I got started. $5/night was pretty good back then. :)
 
College hoops is the worst by far. There is no consistency what so ever. There are too many refs on the court all wanting to make calls. Too many have big egos. They are influenced by coaches or crowds too easily. They aren't full time. Crews rotate too often. And talent is spread too thin.

In the NBA the most amount of games they will typically have in one day is 8. You do not need more than 10 crews. And those tend to be the best refs available. In the NCAA just the P5 alone will have twice as many games in a day and thus need twice as many refs. So the 2nd and 3rd tier ref talent is spread out.
 
Anyone else here have any experience officiating hoops? And I don't mean being dragooned into action because the refs didn't show up at their daughter's biddy ball game? :)

No worries, I already know the answer, having posed the question here a time or two before. So I'll leave it with these two things. First, if it was that easy, everybody could do it. It's not, and they don't. So second, I encourage all to join your local association, read the rule book, attend the rookie clinic, learn your mechanics and floor coverage, write the exam, and get started. During the ten years I've been around here, I think only one person has ever taken me up on that. Which is too bad, because there are obviously so many good refs available out there. :)
That is a fair point - doesn't change the fact that a number of those heroic stripes who do put themselves out there are struggling on a nightly basis.

I am not a doctor either but when the surgeon screwed up my Dad's surgery I didn't say "hey you know you have a tough gig and since I didn't choose to pursue it, don't sweat your error".
 
Comparing college refs to the NBA is foolish. From an earlier post ...

You're certainly on to part of the problem with trying to compel consistency. As I've mentioned before, there are approx 350 Div I mens teams, approx 280 Div II and over 300 Div III, Then there's the NAIA with over 260 teams. Now double those numbers to include womens' teams, and we're starting to see the magnitude of the situation. Wait, what's that? There's junior college hoops as well? Oh, mens' and womens'?

The NBA has what, 30 teams? They also have only about 65-70 referees to train and manage, so it's a lot easier to create a level of consistency. And they're pros who don't have other jobs, unlike most of the thousands of college level officials. And the pros work with partners they often work with. Doesn't work that way in college. And finally, there are different rule books. Anyone who doesn't understand what that means hasn't been paying attention.
 
Last edited:
That is a fair point - doesn't change the fact that a number of those heroic stripes who do put themselves out there are struggling on a nightly basis.

I am not a doctor either but when the surgeon screwed up my Dad's surgery I didn't say "hey you know you have a tough gig and since I didn't choose to pursue it, don't sweat your error".

Not a good comparison. Surely you're not equating surgery with reffing hoops?

Anyway, consider the NCAA tournaments. All 3 divisions, men and women. The refs in the pool are from all over the country and are nominated by their own old boys clubs, so they're not always the best available; some don't get the time off from work; they often work with partners they've never met before; and they're evaluated after every game to determine who moves forward. That's a lot of pressure, and I'll give you that some handle it better than others. I mean, just think of the guy who T'd Terrence Roberts for slapping the backboard as he dunked against Vermont.
 
Comparing college refs to the NBA is foolish. From an earlier post ...

You're certainly on to part of the problem with trying to compel consistency. As I've mentioned before, there are approx 350 Div I mens teams, approx 280 Div II and over 300 Div III, Then there's the NAIA with over 260 teams. Now double those numbers to include womens' teams, and we're starting to see the magnitude of the situation. Wait, what's that? There's junior college hoops as well? Oh, mens' and womens'?

The NBA has what, 30 teams? They also have only about 65-70 referees to train and manage. And they're pros who don't have other jobs, unlike most of the thousands of college level officials. And the pros work with partners they often work with. Doesn't work that way in college. And finally, there are different rule books. Anyone who doesn't understand what that means hasn't been paying attention.

Doesn't that all just reinforce that CBBall games have the worst overall quality? Structurally it is impossible to be the best.

Pros will be better than semi pros. That puts college sports at a disadvantage. Although there is more potential for "corruption" in the Pros (see NBA playoff ref assignments).

It is easier to set a standard and have oversight in the Pros.

Sports with fewer games and fewer teams will need less officials. So there is a less diluted pool in Football vs BBall.

There is also a lot less action in Football vs BBall, which means there is more potential for calls to be made whether they be correct calls or not. You can have a well officiated BBall game have a ton of calls. It is the nature of the sport. Which all makes it is harder to succeed.

Also in BBall foul trouble changes the game, as the player needs to sit. You can commit as many penalties as you want in Football as long as it is not targeting. That makes a refs foul decision even bigger in BBall.

In BBall a ref can set a tone for how a game is played. Can't really do that in Football. It is harder to influence how a game is played.

Major calls can be "fixed" in football via instant replay. There is less of that in BBall.

BBall refs interact more with players and coaches vs Football. That will impact how they call games, it is human nature.

Arguing a call has greater consequences in BBall as you can get T'd up. You never see that in Football unless it is a B1G ref and Dino.



Refs are human and I get making a mistake by thinking you see something and getting it wrong. But an issue in BBall is refs anticipating what will happen instead of calling what they actually see. There are too many phantom calls or incorrect calls because the ref made a decision before it happened. They shouldn't be creating the story.
 
Anyone else here have any experience officiating hoops? And I don't mean being dragooned into action because the refs didn't show up at their daughter's biddy ball game? :)

No worries, I already know the answer, having posed the question here a time or two before. So I'll leave it with these two things. First, if it was that easy, everybody could do it. It's not, and they don't. So second, I encourage all to join your local association, read the rule book, attend the rookie clinic, learn your mechanics and floor coverage, write the exam, and get started. During the ten years I've been around here, I think only one person has ever taken me up on that. Which is too bad, because there are obviously so many good refs available out there. :)
I reffed games. I also umped games. In both cases, I kept getting requested. I think the reason was because I hustled and treated players and coaches the way I wanted to be treated when I played and coached.
 
Watching the games this weekend, I think it was a semifinal of the big 10, one of the announcers said to the other,”a Big 10 foul isn’t the same as an ACC foul.”

When my wife and I used to go to high school basketball games, she once mentioned to me, if I ever noticed that the refs with the shiney sneakers were the worst. The shinier the worst. We would laugh; and I couldn’t disagree with her.
 
I would say college hoops. In addition to coaching for almost 35 years I've also officiated football, basketball, baseball, soccer and volleyball (all below HS Varsity levels). Basketball is without a doubt the most difficult. For some reason I think college hoops refs do the worst job of instant replay reviews. Review from the UK - Vandy SEC tourney game...UK player is standing out of bounds with ball in his hands, throws the ball off a couple players, Vandy possession is called. Gotta check replay...ball went off of Vandy player so UK ball. What about the UK player standing out of bounds with the ball you ask? "they weren't reviewing whether he was out of bounds, only who he threw the ball off of."
 
Anyone else here have any experience officiating hoops? And I don't mean being dragooned into action because the refs didn't show up at their daughter's biddy ball game? :)

No worries, I already know the answer, having posed the question here a time or two before. So I'll leave it with these two things. First, if it was that easy, everybody could do it. It's not, and they don't. So second, I encourage all to join your local association, read the rule book, attend the rookie clinic, learn your mechanics and floor coverage, write the exam, and get started. During the ten years I've been around here, I think only one person has ever taken me up on that. Which is too bad, because there are obviously so many good refs available out there. :)

Yep 15 years officiating HS hoops here in NY .. Mostly section 4 and a few section 3 schools in the area.
I wish more people would get involved with officiating as well. Shortage of officials is a real thing. I'm apart of a smaller officiating board and could barely cover all of games on the busy Tuesday & Friday nights. Many times I had to do both JV and Varsity games back to back.
 
The fact that in football the ball is still marked by the human eye of a man, usually older, trying to keep up with premier athletes, is hilarious and ridiculous.

That alone makes it the worst, college and the NFL.
That plus they'll come out and measure using the chains and if they're short, by even an inch, whelp - sucks for you.
 
Sports inherently suffer from less consistent officiating the further down you go from professional ranks. P5 is worse than pros… D1AA is worse than D1… and so on… high school is worse than college… right down to pee wees. It’s just natural.

But to the question… College BBall is worse than FB. Less consistency.
 
All sports are varying degrees of bad. Asking CEO aged men to follow teen aged to 30 something year old men is dumb.
 
All sports are varying degrees of bad. Asking CEO aged men to follow teen aged to 30 something year old men is dumb.
I won’t even suggest that I know anything about what it’s like for officials at professional level sports, or even high level college games. But I know a little bit about officiating soccer at the high school and USSF through twenties to adult level. Players are fast and frequently fairly skilled. The games move fast. And I can tell you with utmost confidence that the best referees are not the young guys who can run all day. It’s the middle aged guy who has been reffing for a lot of years, and knows that positioning is everything. True there are old guys who should not be reffing, but I know guys that were solid refs into their 70s. They know the game. They know what things to anticipate. And they don’t just react to situations. Soccer is a different sport, for sure. But I’m guessing basketball and football have the same challenges soccer has. Good refs, bad refs, etc. But I would almost never hold a ref’s age against him or her. Now if they are carrying too much weight, that’s a different story.
 
Yep 15 years officiating HS hoops here in NY .. Mostly section 4 and a few section 3 schools in the area.
I wish more people would get involved with officiating as well. Shortage of officials is a real thing. I'm apart of a smaller officiating board and could barely cover all of games on the busy Tuesday & Friday nights. Many times I had to do both JV and Varsity games back to back.

20+ years out here, HS & college. In HS games, we have always done both JV and varsity. In tournaments every weekend, always 2 games each day, both Friday and Saturday. :)

I reffed in Section III & IV for a season, out of Oneonta. In order to move onto the varsity lists, you have to have your application "certified" by three others who are all "certified" also. But the old boys protect their turf, and it's difficult to move up.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
167,144
Messages
4,682,952
Members
5,901
Latest member
CarlsbergMD

Online statistics

Members online
163
Guests online
1,176
Total visitors
1,339


Top Bottom