Because I hate Big 12 refs and have too much time on my hands I decided to look at the data for this year’s conference games and try to figure out whether there is any validity to the idea that games are called different against us. I looked only at the teams that we have played so far (Kansas, OU, KSU, BYU, Baylor, Houston). Here is what I found:
Games not against Texas
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Average penalties: 5.4
Average penalty yards: 48.9
Average opponent penalties: 5.4
Average opponent penalty yards: 45.9
Against Texas
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Average penalties: 3.7
Average penalty yards: 26.0
Average opponent penalties: 6.2
Average opponent penalty yards: 48.5
Conclusions
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Against Texas, an opponent can expect to be called for ~2 fewer penalties and ~26 fewer penalty yards than their average in Big 12 play. They can expect their opponent (Texas) to be called for ~1 additional penalty and ~3 additional penalty yards than average.
Officiating crews are, statistically speaking, having a much greater effect by failing to call penalties against our opponents than by calling extra penalties against us. This is consistent with the examination of holding / PI calls posted earlier in the thread.