grizzlyjournal said:
This is an interesting and valid discussion and one I ponder when I see an official who has frequently called Big Sky Conf games regularly calling Pac 12 games... as I noted of two officials who called the Montana-ISU game last week. And then asking, "Why can't they call Big Sky games like they call Pac 12 games???"
...
So … do the officials assigned to the Big Sky get more whistle happy (whether from the style of play or whatever). As a matter of fact, they do … although they’re not the worst case.
According to NCAA stats through Thursday’s games, Big Sky teams draw, on average,
18.2 fouls per game (FPG). Specific teams range from 13.9 (Weber) to 21.0 (Idaho). The Griz are fifth at 17.5.
If it’s any consolation, the WAC suffers the most, with an average of
18.6 fouls per game. Abilene Christian tops out at 21.7 FPG. (With teams all over Texas, and from Chicago to Riverside, California, scheduling officials has to be a nightmare.)
The Big West does much better than the BSC, with an average of
17.1 FPG. Like Idaho in the Sky, Bakersfield takes the booby prize at 21.0 FPG.
It happens that the Pac-12 is more or less at the low middle of the pack. They average
16.9 FPG, with USC the best at 14.1 and Washington State at 19.9 FPG.
Next in line is the West Coast Conference, with an average of
16.1 FPG. The two best are Santa Clara (14.7) and Gonzaga (14.8), while the most-penalized team is Loyola-Marymount at 17.5 FPG.
The Mountain West does best of all, but not by much. They average
16.0 FPG, with Colorado State best at 14.3 and New Mexico worst at 18.4 FPG.
These are not big differences. Still, they are based on almost half the season schedule and damp out the wild swings in fouls called that we’ve seen from game to game. With that much data, it probably means something that the Big Sky averages essentially two fouls per game more than the three lowest conferences.