As you know, I have been threatening to send my comments about the woeful state of Big Ten officiating, especially in football, to Commissioner Jim Delany. Well, I finally got off the schneid and sent a letter last Friday. The contents of the letter contain essentially whole portions of blogs I have posted here in October and last week. Here’s the letter:

Dear Mr. Delany,

I would like to congratulate you on your nearly 20 years in your position as Commissioner of Athletics for the Big Ten Conference. In that time, you have done a great job in increasing the revenue to the conference universities. You helped the conference to add Penn State, which built an Eastern presence and a powerhouse, storied football program. When people thought it foolish, you started the Big Ten Network, a pipe dream that has become a cash cow for the conference. You have overseen the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament, a wholly unnecessary weekend of games that downgrades the value of the regular season. But it is time to improve a factor for which improvement is long overdue: the officiating, especially in football.
I have been a season ticket holder for Northwestern University football since 1996, but been watching Big Ten athletics since 1976, the year before I entered NU. I believe that I am more than just your average fan; from 1990 until 1998, I wrote for 2 sports television shows: “The Sportswriters on TV” and “The Back Table with Chet Coppock.” (I even wrote questions for Chet when you were guest on that program, but he never broached this subject with you even though I sent questions in this regards.) Since then I have submitted pieces for various web sites including Fox Sports.com. For the past 2 years, I’ve written for my own site: www.evilopinion.com.
In each venue, I have complained about the quality of the football officiating to no avail. All the way back to the blown touchdown call against Northwestern that caused a tie against Bill Walsh’s Stanford team in 1991 after the venerable “genius” said that NU should leave the Big Ten. The Conference “apologized.”
Things have not improved and I am not saying this as a dyed-in-the-wool Northwestern fan who believes that the Wildcats get screwed by calls. Just the opposite, I cringe every time there is a yellow flag on the field against either team. It appears that the officials either have never read the rule book or are “making it up as they go along.” At this point, I’m happily surprised when the officials do make the correct call.
For example, in the October 24th game between NU and Indiana game, an official called a penalty against NU and promptly started marching off yardage against Indiana and for the first couple of yards, none of the other officials corrected the mistake. In the same game, the officials signaled an NU touchdown on the blocked punt instead of a safety, reversed themselves and then it appears that they still missed the call. In many games, the striped shirts miss numerous holding penalties on both sides; and flat out fail on several clock and timeout issues. It was so bad that even the writer for the Chicago Tribune brought it out in the next day’s coverage of the game.
But no one can say anything. If the coaches speak out publicly, they get massive fines. Players can be suspended; even we fans can be thrown out of games or have our season tickets revoked. No one can say anything to you about the lousy referees, which is why I am finally sending you this letter after years of frustration with the status quo.
Now, you and the conference are considering expansion. First, it does make sense to add a 12th school – the conference has been like a three wheeled scooter since Penn State joined – scheduling is difficult with an odd number of schools. However, speculation is that the addition of 1 or more schools is just the possibility of dividing the conference into 2 divisions like the SEC and then playing a “conference championship game” for big money.
To his credit, Northwestern Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald was quoted in the local media as being against the added game, saying that his players are beat up enough by the current schedule and adding another game would put more pressure on them as athletes. (Of course, NU might be the only school in the Big Ten whose football players actually have to go to class and can’t load up on PE classes and other non-mentally strenuous courses.)
As I alluded to at the start of this letter, I am no fan of the Big Ten Basketball Tournament. It is probably the only local sporting event in a major sport that I have avoided. The reason – the players play, and sweat and work hard for the 30-odd game regular season (earning no money for their effort, but that’s a problem for all of college sports, not just the Big Ten). The regular season usually separates the good from the bad and the ugly. It is just another excuse for more games, more television, and more revenue to the schools.
The games are ultimately meaningless. That is, unless a bad team gets hot for one weekend, wins the conference tournament, and gets the automatic NCAA berth. This isn’t fair for a team to get on a hot streak for a couple of days, get into the NCAA only to get slaughtered. Worse, this scenario has occurred before and deprived a smaller school, or one from a smaller conference who played well all year, gets squeezed out of a rightful place in the tournament by a school from one of the big conferences. It’s just not fair.
I don’t want the same thing to happen in football. In basketball, there is less wear and tear on the body (I didn’t say none, just less than football). Football players are subjected to terrific hits. Facing even one more game is a great risk. Ask NU defensive end Corey Wooten – he was going to be a first round draft choice last season, but a freak knee injury suffered in the Alamo Bowl forced him to return to school for one more year, and while he has shown improvement this season, he is probably no longer a first rounder.
To get back to my main point, Mr. Delany; what, if anything, has been done to improve the competency of the officials? Instant replay (not at all instant) has not improved the refs. It’s like they feel they can relax; the television cameras will protect them from themselves.
Please don’t say that the officials are competent. I sit among a group of knowledgeable fans, some of whom played Big Ten football, and they, like me, are appalled by the incongruous, inconsistent, and apparently arbitrary nature of the officiating.
Sometimes, it appears that calls are made to keep games close, especially if one of the traditional “powerhouses” fall behind. The gambling scandal that has plagued the NBA and rumors that are much older that the league is “rooting” for certain teams and attempt to influence the final outcome is a stain that league is still trying to clean off its reputation. Similar rumors abound about our conference (albeit not to the same degree as the NBA).
Mr. Delany, you have to be commended for helping to make the Big Ten a top flight college conference, what do you have to fear if you admit that the officiating is not up to par with the other conferences? Games will be reversed? That won’t happen. The universities will revolt? That won’t happen either.
Maybe you don’t want to spend any additional money to hire competent officials, but I propose that its money well spent (and I don’t suggest making them full time employees). We cannot be a top flight conference with second or even third rate officials. Is it fair to the athletes and coaches who work so hard to have games decided by ludicrous penalties? They deserve the best officials we can get, not this lot.
Sincerely,
Tony Fernandez

I’ll let you know if I receive any response.