Irish Breakdown

Notre Dame Football: Unpacking the Controversy Around Referees and the Fighting Irish

Officiating against the Irish has been highly questionable in recent weeks

Mason Plummer

Sep 2, 2023; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman reacts while arguing with referee Mike Roche after a targeting call against Notre Dame in the second quarter against the Tennessee State Tigers at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-Imagn Images
Sep 2, 2023; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman reacts while arguing with referee Mike Roche after a targeting call against Notre Dame in the second quarter against the Tennessee State Tigers at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-Imagn Images / Matt Cashore-Imagn Images
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Other than for big touchdowns, I have not seen Notre Dame Stadium louder than on Saturday evening when back-to-back 78-yard touchdowns were called back due to two ticky-tack penalties from the ACC officiating crew.

Notre Dame fans have been frustrated for years with ACC crews coming into South Bend and favoring the ACC opponent the Irish are hosting and that was evident again on Saturday.

Officiating across the board has been rough this season, with dozens of fanbases questioning calls and decision making from the various officiating crews across the country. It's difficult to truly tell if the officiating recently against Notre Dame has just been bad, and largely one-sided, or if refereeing everywhere is truly this bad and getting worse by the week.

Besides the two touchdowns that were called back by the officials, one on a long touchdown pass from Riley Leonard to Jayden Harrison, and another on a fake punt that saw Jordan Faison take it to the house, there was also an inexplicable missed call on a Virginia "reception" that set up its only non-garbage time touchdown.

It gets to a point where it starts to feel like when ACC officials come to town, it is in their best interest for the true ACC team to win, or at the very least keep it close. It may be a biased take, admittedly so, but when you see the same things happen nearly every week - something isn't adding up.

It is part of being an independent and something Notre Dame has been forced to deal with over the years, but something needs to change with officiating as a whole. There were dozens of inexplicable calls not just in the Notre Dame vs. Virginia game that decide football games at points and when the stakes are so high, these things can't happen.

I will leave you with the clip of this "catch", that was ruled a 38-yard completion for Virginia. You can watch the ball bounce multiple times. Unexplainable, inexplicable and just ridiculous. Glad it didn't impact the result of the game.

But for those who had Notre Dame -22.5, it certainly did.

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Mason Plummer
MASON PLUMMER

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