Last year’s Michigan-Ohio State game obviously drew lots of criticism due to its officiating, not only from Wolverine fans but from an outspoken Jim Harbaugh as well.
The officiating gaffe drew attention nationwide, mainly because of the egregious no-calls against Ohio State, but also because the crew’s leader, Dan Capron – who hails from Ohio – had been fired back in 2002 for poor officiating.
Bill Carollo, the Big Ten’s coordinator of football officials, spoke at the conference’s media days on Tuesday about last November’s controversy.
“There were a couple officials on that crew from Ohio,” Carollo said. “There were just as many from Michigan. There were four from Indiana and one from Chicago – you have to live somewhere.”
Carollo went on to explain that if an official has any kind of allegiance to a school, he should take himself off of the game.
“If I went to the University of Michigan, I’d say I can’t work Michigan games,” Carollo said. “If you played there or your next door neighbor is the coach or goes to the same school, you just have to take yourself off.
“I have about 12 different categories of conflicts of interest, and they’re not just whether or not you played football at Michigan, or wherever it might be. We have that all written down. Residency is not one of my conflicts of interest, because they have to live somewhere.
“If you feel there’s any doubt, you have to take yourself off. We have a lot of people who raise their hand and say they should not work a game because their best friend is in the front office of that team or something.”
Carollo went on, doing his best to disprove the residency theory.
“The residency thing is just not an issue,” he explained. “The commissioner knows that and we know that. We do integrity and background checks, and we have an integrity program that we put in place. There’s a lot of checks and balances in everything, especially if we have to go somewhere and there could be a conflict.
“I actually got a call yesterday about a crew I have going to Reno, and they called and said the hotel is at a casino, so I told them to get a different hotel. Because they’re from Ohio, the impression is that they’re going to be gambling. That’s certainly not the case, but that’s what a lot of people will think.”
Carollo expanded a bit more on the policy they have in place.
“We tell our officials about it, and they always raise their hands before I even make the schedule out. But residency isn’t one of them. It’d be really difficult if an eight-person crew – men and women and two replay people – could never find work because one of them is from Wisconsin or one is from Indiana; I wouldn’t be able get the crews together. Every week somebody would be off because we’re going to Rutgers and one of them is from New Jersey, or something like that.”
Finally, Carollo touched on the actual calls that received so much controversy in last November’s game.
“The whole thing was handled fine,” he said. “It was one of my top crews. That crew went on to work the semifinal playoff game.
“Are there mistakes in games? Yes. Were there some in that game? Yes. Did they have a good game though? Yes, or solid at least. It wasn’t perfect, but it never is and it never will be.
“I think the conversation with Coach Harbaugh and Michigan was handled properly. Obviously there’s going to be a lot of disappointment in winning and losing games.”
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