Opinion: The official divide: College football needs to nationalize its referees

Perception isn’t always the base of truth. Perception and reality are often two different things.

Were there bad calls Saturday in Michigan’s 38-34 win over Notre Dame? Sure. But there are questionable calls in almost every game played.

It’s called being human.

And it’s also why college football needs to eliminate conference affiliation when it comes to officials. Create a national pool. Erase the ambiguity and any perception - there’s that word again - of any sort of favoritism.

Complaining about officiating is as old as sport, but you don’t see any other major sport aligning officials with a certain conference and only that conference. In the NFL, it’s not like there are NFC West officials and then AFC East officials.

On Saturday, there were questionable and controversial calls. Both Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis and Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez said in the 48 hours after the game that they saw calls that they questioned and will send to the Big Ten office for review.

For both, it’s a commonplace thing. However, Rodriguez said he sent no plays for review after the opener against Western Michigan. Weis said his list is longer than usual and that the officiating, in his opinion, “left a lot to be desired.”

In Rodriguez' case, he took more issue with subjective plays, like pass interference and holding calls, the latter of which is an emphasis for officials this year. Weis took umbrage with clock issues and an Armando Allen touchdown being called back on review.

“There were a few calls that I would question, too, on Saturday,” Rodriguez said Monday. “But I didn’t think there was anything in that game that was determining the game. If there was, it would have been one of those big, long plays that we got called for.”

The Big Ten, through spokesperson Scott Chipman, declined to comment about officiating in Saturday’s game when reached Monday.

The perception of bias is not as much of an issue in college basketball, where officials are more known by name and often work games in multiple conferences. They are paid by leagues, but a ref could be doing a Big East game one night, an ACC game the next and a CAA game a third night.

College football officials also don’t have the same name recognition. There isn’t an Ed Hightower or Ted Valentine or Jim Burr or Tim Higgins. They are mostly anonymous, merely associated with their respective conference.

And that’s where the trouble starts. So nationalize it. Then, for instance, Weis can’t pretend to couch his statements by saying he has a Big Ten crew coming in to South Bend this week.

Of course, the argument could be made that whining about officiating - and that’s what most complaining is - a loser’s lament, in this case a curious excuse for a man whose autobiography is titled “No Excuses.”

But any argument Weis may have is diminished if there is a national officiating pool.

And questions about officiating and specific officials in various conferences - think Oklahoma-Oregon in 2006, where the Pac 10 suspended officials for a game as well as controversial calls by Big Ten official Stephen Pamon's crew in two games in 2007 - haven’t made things any easier as far as how college football officiating is viewed.

College football has begun an attempt to lessen the perception, hiring former Big Ten director of officials Dave Parry as the national coordinator of officials. But that’s only a step. And considering college football’s notoriously well-known problems with speed when it comes to changing the game, don’t expect it to be changed within the next year or so.

“Will the day come where the conference tags is moved from officials and it’s a national body? It may be the long-term goal,” said Nick Carparelli, the Big East Associate Commissioner for football. “But I don’t think it’ll happen in the next five years.”

So like they did with instant replay and overtime -- and are still doing concerning a potential playoff and a non-BCS school in the national championship game -- those surrounding the game must wait.

And wait.

And hope that someone or something, eventually, forces a change.

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow on Twitter @mikerothstein.