REFEREEING IS PART OF THE NARRATIVE.

REFEREEING IS PART OF THE NARRATIVE. In addition to accountability (and providing economists with data), there is another reason for making a league’s evaluations of refereeing public. Like many fans, I watch a game because of the story. I watched a couple football games this year where the announcers couldn’t explain an important call, even with the benefit of replay. I never found out what happened in the game. In a close game, the evaluation of the refereeing can be as helpful as a box score. If fans spend three or more hours watching a game, they should be able to know the story (the interest in what really happened is one reason the Sun Belt Conference released this report on the refereeing of the 2006 Alamo Bowl).