Ref Bias: Winning Team Gets More Calls Against Them

Just finished watching Kentucky beat Vandy today. What sticks in my mind was how bad the referees were; on both sides! But remember:

Refs favor the home team, the academics say. They’re big on “make-up” calls. They make more calls against teams in the lead, and the discrepancy grows if the game is on national TV.

This comes from an AP story about an article published in the The Journal of Sports Sciences. Bottom line? Refs are simply human too and, at least subliminally, pull for whoever is losing.

More interesting stuff in the article.