So obviously a certain percentage of us felt like we got a raw deal on a few calls last year as a going away present from the Big 12. Now I've finally seen a mainstream journalist admit that it wouldn't be good for the B1G if we come in and win the first year (Adam Rittenberg, the ESPN B1G blogger). So who thinks there will be one or two games we lose this year as the result of a controversial call?
If your games are close then you will lose one or two on a controversial call and you will win one or two on a controversial call. It is college football. There are always controversial calls that if the game is close can affect the outcome. At least it is slightly better now with replay.
Last year one specific officiating crew had an agenda against Nebraska. The same crew called the Texas, Iowa State and Texas A&M games. In those three games Nebraska was called for 32 penalties while ISU, Texas and A&M were called for a total of nine. There was a 187-yard disparity in penalty yards for those three games. Two-thirds of all penalties called against Nebraska in Big XII play were called in those three games.
But the sticking point isn't the amount of penalties that were called against Nebraska (although they were egregious), it was the amount that weren't called against our opponents. Texas A&M, in particular, was one of the most-penalized teams in all of college football, but in our game they were only called for two penalties. For ten total yards. In no other game last year was A&M penalized so few times.
