Study: Refs hold home team, more aggressive team BIAS

[Aughnanure]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=4682821

Not really a surprise, but nice to see someone calling out refs for the ridiculous bias that has become such a part of the game that is incomparable to any other sport. The way games are played changes so much in College Basketball depending on where its played and who's playing its about time something like this came out.

My personal favorite is the Allen Fieldhouse bias, where KU can hack away for the first 5-10 minutes no matter what, get a big lead, and the refs make up the foul count through ticky-tack fouls that don't change the momentum or even the ball possession.

From the article:


Exhibit A: The 2005 Final Four meeting between Illinois and Louisville. The Illini, known for being more aggressive defensively, got whistled for the first seven fouls. By the end of the game, the foul count was Louisville 13, Illinois 12. The Illini won 72-57.

Results like this were the norm across all the games the professors studied from that season -- from the Big East to the ACC to the Big Ten and all 63 NCAA tournament games. The take-home message for coaches: The more aggressive your teams the better because, in the end, the foul count is going to be about even no matter what.

It helps explain, the professors say, why college basketball has gotten increasingly physical over the past 25 years.

"Part of the reason for the study came from something my coach used to tell me," said study co-author Kyle Anderson, a visiting professor at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, who played at Division III Knox College. "He said a team can come in and push and shove and grab and hold, and by the end of the game, or end of the half, they've only got one or two more fouls because officials kind of get tired of calling it."