Will Utah start to benefit from PAC-12 officiating?

[YodaUte]

When Utah was in the MWC or the WAC, I found the worst thing about playing a PAC-10 opponent was that you had to deal with PAC-10 officiating. I can think of several occasions throughout the years where the Utes took a loss on one or more really questionable calls. I am convinced the officiating was, if not outright dirty, at least biased in favor of the PAC-10 team.

In today’s age of reviewing all the big calls I don’t know if that sort of thing is still going on to the same extent. I believe it still happens. There are a lot of subtle ways an official can influence the outcome of games. For example, a holding call will usually stall a drive. Looking the other way on a holding call at a critical time can have a huge impact on the game and most people will be none the wiser.

So yeah, I’m a bit of a conspiracy theorist when it comes to PAC-12 officiating. My question is, now that Utah is the conference’s best hope at a playoff berth, does Utah start to reap the benefit of PAC-12 officiating? I think probably not. The small market problem will stop that from happening. I don’t think Utah is considered one of the good ol’ boys. Yet. If there is subtle favoritism by the refs, I expect it would benefit the team with the greater number of TV sets. This is something I will be looking for in the USC game.

[rbmw263]

any favoritism there is has to be extremely mild, otherwise that crap would NEVER fly. Other conf commissioners would lose it.

Semi related note. Rewatched the game and took a good look at the offensive PI that was called on K Scott. It was a pick play that was no worse than the least egregious one that Cal ran. He did EXACTLY what the Cal WR did on their TD pass. We do it one freaking time and get flagged. Absolutely infuriating. (btw Cal continued to run pick plays without getting flagged against UCLA)