Seems to me that while their will be the occasional bad calls, it seems
there is something important here. Seems the system in place is a
conference management process when it comes to officials. Clearly there is
an incentive for a conference to promote itself. I am not saying it happens
since I have only rather anecdotal evidence. With these incentives, seems
it is imprint to see that no significant bias exists when there is
inter-conference game play, especially in Regionals and Finals..
Is a process controlled at the conference level sufficient to provide
inter-conference officiating without a conference bias? . This may be
dreaming in technicolor but it seems there is a base of data from game play
in inter-conference games that could be used to examine this. I am
thinking of inter-conference games, tournaments during the season , etc.
It would not seem too much of a stretch for each conference to have one of
their "officiating reviewers" at games to render an evaluation for
independent review and reports to the conferences when something is deemed,
after a thorough review, to indicate a problem of serious inter-conference
bias.
Just wondering whether anyone knows of these methods being currently being
applied..
Bob Hamilton
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Woodbury <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Friday, March 30, 2007 2:25 PM
Subject: Re: officiating
>First, there's nothing wrong or disloyal in liking both hockey and
>basketball...or baseball...or football...or field hockey.
>Speaking of field hockey (like the transition?), I did play-by-play on
>basketball (high school and college, kept score for Johnny Most) for
>almost 30 years and wrote up games for another 10. When I went from
>radio/TV to newspapers, I volunteered to cover field hockey, mainly
>because no one else in the sports department wanted to. I knew nothing
>about the game. I had a basketball mentality when it came to whistles. I
>had to know what every whistle was for, and why. That will drive you
>nuts in field hockey.
>I would stand next to people who knew that game and drove them nuts. One
>day I was standing next to a field hockey coach who, the previous
>season, had won her third consecutive high school state championship.
>About every third time I would ask her "What was that for," she'd reply
>"I don't know."
>I developed a radical philosophy. If a coach, who had just won three
>consecutive state championships, doesn't know what every third call was
>for, why should I care? I watched the game, appreciated it for it's
>beauty, appreciated the athletes talents and enjoyed the game every time
>after that. If a call effected what happened in the game, I would ask
>the ref at halftime or after the game to explain the call. Know what.
>Didn't have to do that very often - maybe three times in 12 years.
>Conclusion - the refs have very little, if anything, to do with the
>outcome of a game. If there is, what has been termed a "blatant" call
>(English translation: one with which you, an amateur in the stands,
>disagree with a professional on the ice) then perhaps the offender(s)
>(read players) shouldn't have put themselves in that kind of position in
>the first place.
>It's very enlightening, once you eliminate the officiating from your
>thoughts, how much more you enjoy the game for what it is - in the case
>of hockey, a really beautiful, beautiful game to watch.
>Disclaimer. I am not now, nor have I ever been, an official of any kind.
>Unless you count umpiring sandlot baseball games 60 years ago with 20
>other guys and girls, all at the same time.
>
>Spreeman, Cathryn wrote:
>
>>Gentlemen, I was at the regional games in Manchester and I thought the
>>officiating was bad. I am offering my opinion as a long-time fan of
>>hockey, and as a hater of squeakball, and at one point during the
>>weekend I observed to my ever-patient spouse "if the officiating
>>continues like this, we may as well be watching basketball." There were
>>blatant calls missed and insignificant stuff whistled. We opined at the
>>time that it seemed the officials weren't familiar with the style of
>>play in the east. I have no scientific data to back it up, but it
>>seemed to us that whenever a non-HE official does a game with HE team(s)
>>involved, there are a ton of stoppages.
>>
>>Posting on Hockey-L without adding a ream of documentation? Not a
>>capital offense.
>>
>>Cathy Spreeman
>>UNH '72 (same class as Umile, 'nuf said)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: - Hockey-L - The College Hockey Discussion List
>>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Eric J. Burton
>>Sent: Friday, March 30, 2007 12:00 PM
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: Re: officiating
>>
>>Whatever since I read all over USCHO.COM and INCH the Officating was
>>less
>>than stellar in the Manchester Regional.
>>>From INCH:
>>The officiating in the first period - and during stages later in the
>>game -
>>was wildly inconsistent. Referee Derek Shepherd missed a couple of
>>blatant
>>calls and wound up whistling some makeup calls afterward. Shepherd is a
>>highly-regarded official in the college hockey world. He called last
>>week's
>>WCHA Final Five championship and also reffed last year's Maine-Michigan
>>State regional championship matchup. He also called the 2004 Frozen Four
>>game between Maine and Boston College, when he apparently missed another
>>call -
>>
>>So there you have it.
>>Eric J. Burton
>>(701)-610-9466
>>http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/
>>
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: - Hockey-L - The College Hockey Discussion List
>>[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Wayne T Smith
>>Sent: Friday, March 30, 2007 10:27 AM
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: Re: officiating
>>
>>
>>Why should we believe or even read that here? If we're going to smear
>>someone's reputation, can't we do it in more specific terms and if not
>>with 1st hand information, a reference that can help us evaluate the
>>opinion, please?
>>
>>See you in St. Louis
>>wayne
>>
>>Eric J. Burton wrote, in part, on 3/30/2007 11:01 AM:
>>
>>
>>>at manchester, we had 2 wcha crews, derek shepherd and todd anderson
>>> with derek getting 2 games
>>>
>>>I have heard that Derrick Sheppard and Todd Anderson did a horrible
>>>
>>>
>>job at
>>
>>
>>>the
>>>regional they were reffing at.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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