Biesecker 1

Annotated Bibliography

Flaws in Sports Officiating and the Effects they have on Industries

Will Biesecker

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

March 15, 2017

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Annotated Bibliography

Neville, Timothy J., Salmon, Paul M., Read, Gemma J. M., Kalloniatis, Alexander C. Play on or

call a foul: testing and extending distributed situation awareness theory through sports

officiating. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, vol. 17, no. 1, Taylor & Francis

Group, 26 Nov. 2015, pp. 80-103. Accessed 3 March 2017.

This is a scholarly journal article that as a whole is looking to assess Distributed Situation

Awareness. The article looks into the DSA model using sports officiating as an example. It

examines if the DSA model needs to be revised or extended in order to remain appropriate. The

DSA model is a form of calculating human awareness in certain situations by human reaction.

The idea is to determine human limits and approaches in handling situations. The article

proposes alternative questions and ideas that could be useful in extending the DSA model if

necessary. Sports officiating is an efficient example to use for this research as sports officials are

supposed to be professionals in situational awareness.

The authors of this article all possess reliable credentials. The four authors, Timothy J.

Neville, Paul M. Salmon, Gemma J. M. Read, and Alexander C. Kalloniatis are all professors of

the Psychology department at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia. The authors are

objective in determining if the DSA model is still reliable. The purpose of the communication is

to inform those in the psychology field of the usefulness and flaws of the DSA model. This

source is different than others in my bibliography as the authors are not directly addressing my

topic, but an abundance of relevant information worth using in my project is found through the

authors experimentation.

This source was very helpful. As it does not pertain directly to my inquiry, I was able to

find much useful information through the DSA experiments about sports officials. I better
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understand the flaws of the officiating due to an understanding of human situational awareness.

Because of this article, I will incorporate more of why human reaction is not good enough to

appropriately officiate many sporting events.

Associated Press. Fewer fouls on home team. ESPN, http://www.espn.com/mens-college-

basketball/news/story?id=4682821. 23 Nov. 2009. Accessed 3 March 2017.

This source is a developed article from a popular source. ESPN, the self-proclaimed

Worldwide leader in sports, developed this article to argue and inform that college basketball

referees have an unintentional bias towards the home team when officiated games. The main

points of the sources argument includes statistics supporting their research. This article points

out specific flaws in college basketball officiating that show the unconscious bias referees

possess due to their environment.

As the article does not clearly state an author, the statistics used in the article are derived

from very credible sources. Professors conducting the research examined 365 college basketball

games during the 2004-2005 season. These professors include Kyle Anderson of Indiana

Universitys Kelley School of Business, and David Pierce of Ball State. The findings of the

professors were eventually published in The Journal of Sports Sciences. The purpose of the

communication is to address the flaws to sports fans who are passionate about the fairness of

athletics. This article is different than other sources in my bibliography as it is very straight

forward with statistics and reasons for the flaws.

This source fits well into my research as it addresses specific statistics that I was finding

tough to locate previously. This will likely change my project slightly as I will now likely use

college sports in my writing. This source will likely appear in my project, depending on if I do

choose to touch on college sports officiating.

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n.a. NBA Referees near Officiating Perfection. NBRA, http://www.nbra.net/nba-referees-near-

officiating-perfection/. 6 May 2015. Accessed March 3 2017.

This source is from a reliable website, The National Basketball Referee Association

website. This source discusses how successful the referees of the NBA have been recently. The

main points of the sources arguments are that it is impossible to be perfect when officiating the

best players in the world, and that the NBA referees have been as close as possible to perfection.

The source uses statistics gathered by NBA researchers since 2015. It claims that in the final two

minutes of play, NBA officials have been 97 percent correct on their calls.

This source does not state a specific author, but states the NBRA General Counsel that

conducted research on the referees performance. This information is reliable as I found it on a

reliable website such as the NBRA. The purpose of the sources communication is to inform

NBA fans that referees are doing an acceptable job. This source compares very differently with

other sources in my bibliography as this source refutes my argument. This source argues that the

referees are doing a satisfactory job, while the argument in my project will be that the referees

are poorly executing in their duties.

This source was helpful as it was useful to see both sides of the argument. With seeing

the other side of the argument, me better understand my topic and how I will be able to shape my

argument. I will use this source in order to address both sides of the argument that I am

addressing and also use the information to enhance my argument.

Jones, Lindsay H. Amid mounting controversies, NFL referees in critical moment. USA Today,

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2015/12/02/referees-officiating-dean-blandino-

refs/76687956/. 2 Dec. 2015. Accessed 5 March 2017.

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This is a developed article from a popular source. In this article by USA Today, the

author is assessing all of the major mistakes that NFL referees had made to that point in the 2015

NFL season. The article evaluates mistakes and looks at statistics of officiating mistakes in 2015

compared to previous seasons. The article looks at the uproar from NFL fans due to bad calls at

the end of games, but points out that there are bad calls throughout the game with less attention

paid to them. The author assesses the commonly made mistakes by NFL officials, and the

affects that such mistakes have on games.

The author, Lindsay H. Jones, is an NFL expert reporter for USA Today Sports who

graduated from Emory University. In the article, she references the NFL vice president of

officiating, Dean Blandino, who recognizes the mistakes. The information is reliable as the NFL

vice president of officiating accepts the statistics listed. The communication is intended to

address the specific flaws in NFL officiating in the 2015 season and the increase in mistakes

made by the officials over time. The audience is NFL fans who are wondering why officiating

performances have been determining the outcome of games. This source is different than others

in my bibliography as it addresses specific instances of flawed in game officiating in the NFL.

This source fits well into my research as specific instances of flawed officiating are

necessary in my argument. These specific instances will help shape my argument as there will

be specific evidence of bad calls determining the outcomes of games. This article helped me

expand my thoughts on the topic with a comparison between bad calls in the middle of the

games and bad calls at the end of games. This source will appear in my topic for the use of

specific instances of bad calls determining the outcome of games.