Referee Accountability

[BleedingBLue]

College football will never have great officiating, especially at the FCS level, unless offcicials are paid a wage comparable to a full time job,

$1000/day is pretty darn good money for three hours of real work.

That said, given all of the money being thrown around college football these days, I would have no problem paying them more...provided they do a good job. And, perhaps that's a partial solution - Reward or penalize financially.

The bolded portion is the problem. Sure $1000 a day is great. But it's not like that's all the time they're putting in. Travel Friday, at the field for 7 ish hours Saturday. Travel Saturday/Sunday. Game film Sunday/Monday and studying when not working their normal job. Everyone wants them to be great, but they honestly don't get paid enough to be great. The BSC officials have to do additional testing, on field time etc. for no pay in the offseason.

Do they get mileage & travel per diem? $1000 doesnt seem like a lot IMO.

The pay is $1550 for a game, flat rate. They pay their own travel, hotel and food out of that. There is 1 BSC official in Montana at this point in time. He nets $600 - $800 on games not at MSU or UM. Because of flight costs close to the date, he always flies to Salt Lake, Denver and Spokane, because if you are unable to make it to a game due to bad roads it's an automatic suspension. Late season games in Moscow and Flagstaff the conference has mandated officials fly into those 2 places directly because of the weather. There used to be 12 BSC officials residing in MT. A couple have retired, the rest moved specifically for officiating. The guys in the bigger metro areas usually net $700 - $1000. It's definitely not a lot for the work they do all year. I was interested in becoming a BSC official until I learned about the pay.

Drywall hangers in Bozeman net well over $600/day. Makes sense.

I'd be interested in being an official too...but I'd need about $150/game at the sub varsity, $250 for varsity, and $2500-$3000 for college to even consider it.

MT has the lowest pay in the region. $55 for sub-varsity and $75 for varsity, in all sports. It's pretty absurd.

[84CatGrad]

I don't know what I need to feel better right now but an officiating bitch session is not it.

[catscat]

I guess the "who you know" factor must be significant. I have called MHSA twice in the last 15 years (last time a little over 3 years ago) and got the name and number of the "officials" person in my town. Called and left message indicating my willingness and interest in becoming an official at the JV or Jr. High level (after all, needed to start somewhere around the bottom) and never received a call back in either case. I concluded they either had plenty of officials or they didn't want any more. I'm too old now, but it now ticks me off when an "officials" shortage is brought up.

[BleedingBLue]

I guess the "who you know" factor must be significant. I have called MHSA twice in the last 15 years (last time a little over 3 years ago) and got the name and number of the "officials" person in my town. Called and left message indicating my willingness and interest in becoming an official at the JV or Jr. High level (after all, needed to start somewhere around the bottom) and never received a call back in either case. I concluded they either had plenty of officials or they didn't want any more. I'm too old now, but it now ticks me off when an "officials" shortage is brought up.

That sucks. I know the Billings pool would take anybody in a heartbeat. Our pool is also run by a former BSC official who is retired and recruits officials as his day job now. I have heard some pools are not well run, and might explain your experience. Depending on your age though, it's never too late. We had two guys in their early 50s start as first year guys this season.

[GoCats18]

What Conference were the refs from that did the game?

[nevadacat]

What Conference were the refs from that did the game?

I think SoCon. During the overtime coin toss, I thought the ref mentioned a SoCon logo on the coin.

[onceacat]

College football will never have great officiating, especially at the FCS level, unless offcicials are paid a wage comparable to a full time job,

$1000/day is pretty darn good money for three hours of real work.

That said, given all of the money being thrown around college football these days, I would have no problem paying them more...provided they do a good job. And, perhaps that's a partial solution - Reward or penalize financially.

The bolded portion is the problem. Sure $1000 a day is great. But it's not like that's all the time they're putting in. Travel Friday, at the field for 7 ish hours Saturday. Travel Saturday/Sunday. Game film Sunday/Monday and studying when not working their normal job. Everyone wants them to be great, but they honestly don't get paid enough to be great. The BSC officials have to do additional testing, on field time etc. for no pay in the offseason.

Do they get mileage & travel per diem? $1000 doesnt seem like a lot IMO.

The pay is $1550 for a game, flat rate. They pay their own travel, hotel and food out of that. There is 1 BSC official in Montana at this point in time. He nets $600 - $800 on games not at MSU or UM. Because of flight costs close to the date, he always flies to Salt Lake, Denver and Spokane, because if you are unable to make it to a game due to bad roads it's an automatic suspension. Late season games in Moscow and Flagstaff the conference has mandated officials fly into those 2 places directly because of the weather. There used to be 12 BSC officials residing in MT. A couple have retired, the rest moved specifically for officiating. The guys in the bigger metro areas usually net $700 - $1000. It's definitely not a lot for the work they do all year. I was interested in becoming a BSC official until I learned about the pay.

Drywall hangers in Bozeman net well over $600/day. Makes sense.

I'd be interested in being an official too...but I'd need about $150/game at the sub varsity, $250 for varsity, and $2500-$3000 for college to even consider it.

MT has the lowest pay in the region. $55 for sub-varsity and $75 for varsity, in all sports. It's pretty absurd.

Yeah. Only way to fix that is for Helena to step in. I don't see that happening.

[asstastic]

I bet this thread doesn’t exist if the Cats swapped places with the Griz and win last night. Lots of threads and posters trying to solidify our ‘little brother’ status lately.

Yup.

[catscat]

I bet this thread doesn’t exist if the Cats swapped places with the Griz and win last night. Lots of threads and posters trying to solidify our ‘little brother’ status lately.

Yup.

It would take place - just on egris instead of bobcatnation

[Griznationalist]

This thread is such a wacko excuse for an 8-4 record. There is no evidence of referee accountability problems.

[Augustus]

This thread is such a wacko excuse for an 8-4 record. There is no evidence of referee accountability problems.

Seems a common utterance by lefties these days. "NO EVIDENCE"...despite mountains of evidence.

Just go away from my thread a$$hole. Nobody wants you here.

[wbtfg]

This thread is such a wacko excuse for an 8-4 record. There is no evidence of referee accountability problems.

Seems a common utterance by lefties these days. "NO EVIDENCE"...despite mountains of evidence.

Just go away from my thread a$$hole. Nobody wants you here.

Hoooboy.

[wbtfg]

This thread is such a wacko excuse for an 8-4 record. There is no evidence of referee accountability problems.

While I don’t always love your posts, I’ll say your communication and human resource skills are strong.

[lakesbison]

Let's just take yesterday's game, for example. Bergen's "TD" on the corner was not a TD. The ball did not cross the plane. It was under his outside arm and his inside shoulder hit the pylon. It did not break the plane. Would they have eventually scored anyway? Probably, but who knows? It wasn't even looked at. An NDSU receiver made an identical approach to the corner and it was ruled not a TD.

57 minutes with zero penalties called against the gris (despite countless holdings and blocks in the back). That just doesn't happen, especially in a tough playoff game.

The completely BS offensive PI call on NDSU where he didn't even touch the defenders, AND, he/they were not even the intended receivers nor were they within 10 yards of the intended receiver.

The tackling of the intended receiver in the end zone on the last play was probably the most egregious, and...not called.

I could go on, but you get the point.

Without question, these referees had their fingers on the scale of this game, whether it was intentional or not. We have no idea how it would have turned out had it been called accurately, but I suspect that the outcome would have been different.

So where is the accountability? What happens to these guys (and now girls ) when they screw up so badly that it affects the outcome of a game? Something MUST be done to address this.

Again, I'm not saying that the outcome would necessarily have been different yesterday, but the game should be fair. When you lose fairly, that's OK. When you don't, it leaves a very bad taste, and someone should be held accountable. In a game such as football, it's likely never going to be perfect, but it should be one whole hell of a lot closer to perfect than it is.

Also, I think someone should check the bank accounts of the refs for yesterday and look for suspicious deposits. No, I'm not kidding.

Agreed!! Look at the game thread. I high lighted the miss calls while they happened!

Ndsu #53 and #20 were held/tackled on back to back plays

#53 had 3 hands to the face by Griz OL

BLOCK in back at midfield during bergens punt return

It was incredible to watch and NDSU/MVFC should be filing a grievance Monday!!!

[lutecat]

This thread is such a wacko excuse for an 8-4 record. There is no evidence of referee accountability problems.

Look I'm not going to participate in this factual thread but I just want to add.....


.....you know darn well if this the Cats and NDSU playing that game there would be a thread on egris about this with griz in Wa being the most vocal. It wouldn't be 4 pages long however.....it'd be 8 by now. You know this to be true. Can you admit that? Can you admit the chip play penalty was bs? If you can admit that I'll admit that the 2pt conversion was not a penalty. Though I think you could probably stipulate that that's a called penalty 50% or the time. The Bergan td was short. Though I'm sure the griz would punch that in from a half yard. And the announcers called out TWO false starts that were never called. You don't normally hear that. Normally when they say there's movement, there's a flag thrown.

[Griznationalist]

This thread is such a wacko excuse for an 8-4 record. There is no evidence of referee accountability problems.

Look I'm not going to participate in this factual thread but I just want to add.....


.....you know darn well if this the Cats and NDSU playing that game there would be a thread on egris about this with griz in Wa being the most vocal. It wouldn't be 4 pages long however.....it'd be 8 by now. You know this to be true. Can you admit that? Can you admit the chip play penalty was bs? If you can admit that I'll admit that the 2pt conversion was not a penalty. Though I think you could probably stipulate that that's a called penalty 50% or the time. The Bergan td was short. Though I'm sure the griz would punch that in from a half yard. And the announcers called out TWO false starts that were never called. You don't normally hear that. Normally when they say there's movement, there's a flag thrown.

Just wow. I wish you peace, health, ease of mind, and a successful Bobcat season in 2024. Griz fans want the Bobcats to succeed because it’s great for the Big Sky Conference. Unfounded conspiracy theories about FCS officiating are of service to no one and they reflect poorly on Bobcat Nation. May you be well.

[GoCats18]

What Conference were the refs from that did the game?

I think SoCon. During the overtime coin toss, I thought the ref mentioned a SoCon logo on the coin.

Isn’t the SoCon the Conference that Haslam oversees on the playoff Committee board? That dude is shady, I wouldn’t put anything past him.

[Griznationalist]

What Conference were the refs from that did the game?

I think SoCon. During the overtime coin toss, I thought the ref mentioned a SoCon logo on the coin.

Isn’t the SoCon the Conference that Haslam oversees on the playoff Committee board? That dude is shady, I wouldn’t put anything past him.

Please don’t replace Bobcat helmets with tin foil hats. MSU is better than this.

[GoCats18]

What Conference were the refs from that did the game?

I think SoCon. During the overtime coin toss, I thought the ref mentioned a SoCon logo on the coin.

Isn’t the SoCon the Conference that Haslam oversees on the playoff Committee board? That dude is shady, I wouldn’t put anything past him.

Please don’t replace Bobcat helmets with tin foil hats. MSU is better than this.

Just trying to really make this thread as wacky as we can get it. I don’t really think this. Just wanted to see where it would go. I felt like the officials in most of the playoffs games I watched were all pretty evenly horrible. But, playing in the Big Sky we should all be used to horrible officials.

[Justwinbaby]

This thread is the trailer of tears.

Great stuff fellas...keep our fanbase mired in the mediocrity of amateurville.