Alabama home cooked strike zone

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Apr 28, 2014
2,316
113
Seems like the umps aren't even gonna try to hide it. I have no dog in the fight but just watching this penn state game.. dead red strikes are being called balls all benefitting Alabama. Announcers stay completely quite. Team should be good enough to win without outside help
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Seems like the umps aren't even gonna try to hide it. I have no dog in the fight but just watching this penn state game.. dead red strikes are being called balls all benefitting Alabama. Announcers stay completely quite. Team should be good enough to win without outside help
Not to be argumentative here, but whenever somebody says something like this my response is why? What possible reason would the umps have to favor the Patrio... uh um I mean Alabama?

Edit: unless of course this guy was umping
maxresdefault (2).jpg
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
Not to be argumentative here, but whenever somebody says something like this my response is why? What possible reason would the umps have to favor the Patrio... uh um I mean Alabama?

Need to preface this: There are many high end, great umpires who do a great job and I have huge amounts of respect for. And there are some excellent umpire groups and assignors in college.

However, and this is fairly ugly, but for some reason, the NCAA doesn't run umpire assignments independently or centrally. In general, each conference assigns games to umpires either within the conference or by the home team or by request from another conference. You will often in football hear 'we have Big Ten crew' in a game between an SEC and Big 12 team - that means they reached out ot the Big Ten to get a 'neutral' crew to umpire technically to avoid any hint of bias..

Umpire assignments in many (but not all) conferences are heavily influenced or in some case run by the college coaches. Or in other cases, assignments are extremely political and involve a group of 'in' people who get favored assignments. On top of this, umpires who are serious about getting college assignments - especially good assignments - are extremely protective of who they let in their circle and many look at newcomers as people trying to 'take away their assignments'.

That means if you do a 'bad' job in their eyes, you probably won't get assigned and if enough don't like you you won't even end up in the pool of available umpires.

So while it may not (or may in some cases) not be intentional in how it influence how you call a game, as a college umpire this has to be in the back of your mind. @riseball will be happy to tell you about games his DD threw as a JUCO pitcher against D1 programs where they were flat out told they were not going to get a call (or you can search for them).

In the worst cases, there are some college games where you just knew who was going to umpire and whether they would be behind the plate or in the field.
 
Last edited:
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Need to preface this: There are many high end, great umpires who do a great job and I have huge amounts of respect for. And there are some excellent umpire groups and assignors in college.

However, and this is fairly ugly, but for some reason, the NCAA doesn't have run umpire assignments independently or centrally. In general, each conference assigns games to umpires either within the conference or by the home team or by request from another conference. You will often in football hear 'we have Big Ten crew' in a game between an SEC and Big 12 team - that means they reached out ot the Big Ten to get a 'neutral' crew to umpire technically to avoid any hint of bias..

Umpire assignments in many (but not all) conferences are heavily influenced or in some case run by the college coaches. Or in other cases, assignments are extremely political and involve a group of 'in' people who get favored assignments. On top of this, umpires who are serious about getting college assignments - especially good assignments - are extremely protective of who they let in their circle and many look at newcomers as people trying to 'take away their assignments'.

That means if you do a 'bad' job in their eyes, you probably won't get assigned and if enough don't like you you won't even end up in the pool of available umpires.

So while it may not (or may in some cases) not be intentional in how it influence how you call a game, as a college umpire this has to be in the back of your mind. @riseball will be happy to tell you about games his DD threw as a JUCO pitcher against D1 programs where they were flat out told they were not going to get a call (or you can search for them).

In the worst cases, there are some college games where you just knew who was going to umpire and whether they would be behind the plate or in the field.
Fair enough..pun intended.
 
Apr 28, 2014
2,316
113
I'm a pretty fair guy and call em like I see em.
This one was straight robbery.
Now I do root for UCLA my favorite and coastal Carolina my DDs future school so if you see me calling BS during there games feel free to bash me :)
 
Apr 28, 2019
1,423
83
Seems like the umps aren't even gonna try to hide it. I have no dog in the fight but just watching this penn state game.. dead red strikes are being called balls all benefitting Alabama. Announcers stay completely quite. Team should be good enough to win without outside help

The initial #1 ranked Tide team took some lumps at the hands of some ACC schools to start the season (FSU, & NC). Plus is was a home tournament for Bama I believe.

The Tide was definitely not Rolling. They need all the help they can get to right the ship. Looks like the SEC is overrated again this year as usual.

In all honesty Penn State would need a minor miracle to beat top teams. Just not as talented or well coached.

It looks like even without Garcia and Nickles UCLA is the class of D-1 again this year. Should be interesting to see who the also rans will be.

Michigan looked good early but faltered this weekend. OU gets run ruled in a serious beat down by the Huskies. Huskies lose early. AZ couple loses all ready.

Looks like UCLA and everybody else fighting for runner-up.
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
The initial #1 ranked Tide team took some lumps at the hands of some ACC schools to start the season (FSU, & NC). Plus is was a home tournament for Bama I believe.

The Tide was definitely not Rolling. They need all the help they can get to right the ship. Looks like the SEC is overrated again this year as usual.

In all honesty Penn State would need a minor miracle to beat top teams. Just not as talented or well coached.

It looks like even without Garcia and Nickles UCLA is the class of D-1 again this year. Should be interesting to see who the also rans will be.

Michigan looked good early but faltered this weekend. OU gets run ruled in a serious beat down by the Huskies. Huskies lose early. AZ couple loses all ready.

Looks like UCLA and everybody else fighting for runner-up.

Don't sleep on UW. They're 14-1 (outscoring opponents 121-50), and Sis Bates only played six games before suffering a concussion. Gabbie Plain also hasn't been her usual dominant self yet. I still like them to win the Pac-12.
 
Apr 28, 2019
1,423
83
Don't sleep on UW. They're 14-1 (outscoring opponents 121-50), and Sis Bates only played six games before suffering a concussion. Gabbie Plain also hasn't been her usual dominant self yet. I still like them to win the Pac-12.

Anything is possible but I’m pretty confident UCLA is the team to beat out West. UDub, AZ, & the Ducks will probably be in the rearview. Remember objects are closer than they appear. 😀
 
Apr 16, 2010
924
43
Alabama
You don't watch enough SEC sports if you are shocked. I can almost guarantee it isn't home cooking. Our officials down here are pretty much incompetent across the board in all sports. Basketball has gotten to the point it is frustrating to even watch.
 

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