Zebra Conspiracy

Someone with a lot of time on their hands could easily prove the answer to the question by mapping out the penalties in all of ISU's games (for both teams) and comparing that to other teams in the league. The answer is there in the data...but I don't think anyone wants to take the time to do the analysis. Probably time to invest the resources in it, though. One person, full time, for one week. Also, by including the pacing of the entire game, it would certainly show that the officials are controlling the outcome when they are supposed to be invisible and only make the calls when they are there.

I know a couple of weeks ago, John Walters had a stat that ISU had gained their 1st first down of the year via penalty. At that point, most Big 12 teams were in double figures in the same stat. That study would be good.
 
They are creating penalties on ISU intentionally or unintentionally. That isn't debatable.

I don't think that TCU is paying them, but they have a bias against ISU and are not afraid to use it.

The problem with that is you have to have comparable evidence side-by-side to support it. The out-of-bounds, no catch that was awarded, followed by the no-call on the holding is the perfect set example that needs to be put up.
 
The problem with that is you have to have comparable evidence side-by-side to support it. The out-of-bounds, no catch that was awarded, followed by the no-call on the holding is the perfect set example that needs to be put up.

Don't worry, the Big 12 will probably issue an apology afterwards. Or maybe not. They used to do that, but after the Texas debacle they didn't. I think they just don't bother anymore, otherwise they'd have to do it weekly and that would get old.
 
And just like that, the 4-in-a-row set of absolutely indefensibly horrible calls will be forgotten even though it granted TCU 7 points and momentum in helping determine the outcome of the game.
 
And just like that, the 4-in-a-row set of absolutely indefensibly horrible calls will be forgotten even though it granted TCU 7 points and momentum in helping determine the outcome of the game.

Flip the halves and this game looks like the most fixed game of the year. The first half was officiated as one sided as possible.
 
They are creating penalties on ISU intentionally or unintentionally. That isn't debatable.

I don't think that TCU is paying them, but they have a bias against ISU and are not afraid to use it.

Maybe the bias is that ISU is the only northern school left in a Southern League and maybe, just maybe, those southern gentlemen aka officials are just getting even for us Winning the Civil War....LOL
 
  • Like
Reactions: CycloneErik
zebras_absolutely_terrifying.jpg
 
I have been watching ISU sports for nearly 60 years. Sure I am biased, like every good fan is. But I have friends who are Missouri, Kansas, and KSU fans and they all readily admit that they know of no other team who gets as many bad calls as ISU. Also, I am a former high school football ref and so I probably know a little more than the average fan about what is/is not a bad call. That non-holding call on the TSU touchdown run was about as bad as its gets. And I think it is getting worse, as the Big 12 becomes a more TX-OK centric conference. It has gotten to the point of where I can't watch some games my level of frustration is so high. My wife will say, time to turn off the TV. That point was reached in the TCU game a few moments ago.

I know I am not the only ISU fan who feels this way. This is becoming a very serious issue when a large number of fans truly believe the cards (i.e., refs) are stacked against us. The ISU administration needs to complain vehemently to the Big 12 about this issue (maybe they are) and if the situation does not soon improve, then the complaints need to become public. I was very upset when NU and MU left the Big 12. But just maybe they really knew what they were doing. I know we have no good options for leaving the Big 12, but at some point you have to quit turning the other cheek. Like IST8CIVILENGR said, "enough is enough"!!!!!

I feel the exact same way and I guess I am at the point where I think Cyclone fans need to do something about it as a group. What to do is the question. The Big 12 office is pretty much a black box. I tried to see if you could email them directly after the Texas game but I couldn't see any way to do it. If the Big 12 office got a massive amount of letters and phone calls would it help? Probably not, but I guess I am sick of taking it, over and over again.

Open to ideas from anyone on what we could do to at least let the Big 12 know that the officiating sucks.
 
If they were simply bad at their job we could expect Oklahoma and Texas and Kansas hoops to start loosing lots of games because of blown calls. Let me know when someone scores a 3 pointer on Kansas during a dead ball and we'll talk.

The worst is Texas. In the 20 year history of the Big XII I've never seen Texas lose a football game because of a bad call. I've seen them win several on bad calls but I have yet to see them lose one.

If it was simply ineptitude it would work both ways.
 
I have been watching ISU sports for nearly 60 years. Sure I am biased, like every good fan is. But I have friends who are Missouri, Kansas, and KSU fans and they all readily admit that they know of no other team who gets as many bad calls as ISU. Also, I am a former high school football ref and so I probably know a little more than the average fan about what is/is not a bad call. That non-holding call on the TSU touchdown run was about as bad as its gets. And I think it is getting worse, as the Big 12 becomes a more TX-OK centric conference. It has gotten to the point of where I can't watch some games my level of frustration is so high. My wife will say, time to turn off the TV. That point was reached in the TCU game a few moments ago.

I know I am not the only ISU fan who feels this way. This is becoming a very serious issue when a large number of fans truly believe the cards (i.e., refs) are stacked against us. The ISU administration needs to complain vehemently to the Big 12 about this issue (maybe they are) and if the situation does not soon improve, then the complaints need to become public. I was very upset when NU and MU left the Big 12. But just maybe they really knew what they were doing. I know we have no good options for leaving the Big 12, but at some point you have to quit turning the other cheek. Like IST8CIVILENGR said, "enough is enough"!!!!!

I completely agree with everything in this post.

I think I got the most upset about the 15 yd chop block on Farniok. Maybe because I was already ticked at that point and that one just sent me way over the edge, but it was as bad a call I've seen and I'll tell you why.

The ref THOUGHT that Farniok was going to make an illegal chop block. He had to have had that in his mind before it even happened. There's no other way you make that call because the block never even happened, Farniok whiffed on it. Not only that, but even if Farniok had not whiffed, it still wouldn't have been a chop block by definition.

So the refs are actually "seeing" things BEFORE they actually happen. That isn't objectivity.
 
Picking up the flag on the intentional grounding was then like the icing on the cake. How that was not intentional grounding is simply beyond me.

There was actually more than just the obvious ones we all are mentioning. There were several pretty late hits on our QB's in the act of sliding that were not called. Fine if they don't want to call them but I guarantee you that those would have been late hits if ISU had made those hits.
 
I guess when you're 1-8, if you can't put the blame where it belongs, blame the refs.

No one is saying that we are a great team and the ONLY reason we lose is because of officiating.

I think use only having one win coming into the game DOES have a factor on officiating though.

Refs will tend to make calls that maintain the status quo. If a favored team loses because of bad officiating the refs never hear the end of it. If the one win team loses a close one where a lot of questionable calls go against them, it's usually no big deal in the grand scheme of things.

It was a bigger factor against blue blood Texas earlier in the year. The refs had one really bad drive today but they didn't give them nearly as much as they gave OSU a few weeks ago.
 
I had to leave the game at the half because I had a very strong urge to run down and tackle the line judge for those back to back horrible calls of being pushed out of bounds and non-holding.

I was sober and those kind of thoughts are very dangerous so I had to get out of there.
 
Don't blame the incredibly anemic offense or the lack of playmakers.....the refs did not affect the outcome of our game today. PLEASE!
 

Help Support Us

Become a patron