Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Home Cooking--Is It A Problem or Just A Southern Dish?

HOME COOKING

Definition: Making calls or rulings in favor of the home team.

This is one of the hot topics every year in the ITA--and probably with some validity. I talked with a couple of ITA coaches in the past week that assured me that there was home cooking going on by the officials in some key locations. I would certainly hope not but the possibility is always there.

Most everyone in the ITA officiating world knows that the SEC is the most "lively" conference in America. One referee told me that at _____ the players cheat and the officials uphold their calls. Interesting observation--and hopefully not true.

What are your opinions on this issue???

14 comments:

jaguar said...

There are 2 problems and the coaches are one of them. The balls are either in or out. Some actions are codeable and the officials should know it. If an official isn't doing their job, they shouldn't be used.

Now all coaches like officials that make calls in their favor. Home coaches can demand that a "fair" official not be used at their site. After a while, the only officials available are the ones that will make favorable calls for the home team that pays the officials fees.

To eliminate the problem 2 solutions are required. 1.Better trained officials without a bias to a certain team and 2.Take away the coaches ability to keep officials out of their home matches. We know that isn't going to happen.

Coaches complain, but they all like home cooking when they are the home team and away coaches all see home cooking even when it doesn't exist.

Anonymous said...

Of course it can work in the converse as well. You can be so focused on not showing any favoratism to the school that hired you to do the match that you can subconsciously hold them to a higher standard when it comes to really close line calls or conduct in the grey area.

Anonymous said...

well here if you officiate for a certain school if the coach does not like something, they send e-mails whining about it and the officials get a nasty letter stating you should WARN the players before coding them, from the main school official.

Anonymous said...

To be totally honest, the only homecooking I have heard of is in the SEC and north of the Red River.

RM said...

I would have serious issues with any official who warns a player when he should be coding him. Only a person who has worked pro events with come up with that idea.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps this could happen in Waco but only with a certain referee in charge.

Anonymous said...

So what would you do if a coach, standing courtside, right after you made a close but correct call, yelled out "I see what's going on here--home cooking." In basketball and football they fine/suspend coaches for public criticism of refs. I let the comment pass, but have wondered if the public affront should have been handled differently.

RM said...

I probably would have given him a coach's warning. Too bad he hadn't already had one so you could then penalize him a point for being unsportsmanlike.

Anonymous said...

Well the Aggies had some payback the next year or so when an A&M player threw his racket at an official after his match at the OSU courts.

RM said...

And pray tell, what happened to the little aglet after he did that?

Anonymous said...

To RM's pray tell question....Little Aglet was coded, but no match to carryover...last match. Report made to Big 12/&A&M, and little Aglet was immediately released from the team to later show up on South Carolina team.

RM said...

Isn't it amazing how they disappear from one time when they are devil children and then reappear as an angel of light with another team.

Last year's #1 at UTA was kicked off the team only to return this year as the #2 player for SMU.

God is still a God of miracles!

Anonymous said...

Yeah...

and another FOREIGN player gets a free ride at ANOTHER US college. What in the hell is wrong with this picture and when will it stop.

You can take this diversity crap and stick it up someone's pipe hole drain.

Anonymous said...

The foreign players get recruited and scholarships because, for the most part, they win. And that's what it's all about for the college coaches. Craig Tiley won with a home grown bunch of guys at Illinois a couple of year's back but, that was the exception. Take the foreign players out of the ITA mix and you'd have a seriously diluted product.