Sport Most Afffected by Questionable Officiating Decisions

[Toopskees]

The play at home plate last night, the Tim Donoghy NBA scandal, the bizarre finish to the NASCAR race at Kansas, and multiple EPL penalties & offsides that have/haven't been called this season got me to thinking about which sports have their outcomes potentially the most affected by questionable officiating decisions.

[Rubeskies]

All I know is that Tennis is the least affected.

The others are debatable. (allthough I know nothing about auto -racing.)

[THAY3R]

How is it not baseball?

Every non contacted pitch is up to the officials.

[dknightx]

in football they could call offense/defense holding or defensive pass interference/illegal contact on almost every play if they really wanted to.

[Dudd]

I think baseball has the most potential due to the arbitrary nature of balls and strikes, but I think generally umpires do a good job of being consistent to both teams, Livan Hernandez in the playoffs excepted. Basketball, especially college basketball, is affected most by referee calls since every third game it seems has a star player get into questionable foul trouble and miss large parts of the game. Some of this is coaching, I feel that coaches are way too conservative when keeping guys on the bench, but it's still a direct outcome of poor officiating.

[AzDesertRat]

basketball has already proven itself while baseball will get there eventually.

[lippy]

[ QUOTE ]
How is it not baseball?

Every non contacted pitch is up to the officials.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think fouls in basketball are much more subjective than pitches. Every drive could be a foul, only a few percent (maybe 10?) of pitches are borderline.

[NT!]

i think football and basketball are the ones where the effect is strongest right now. baseball, as someone said, has the potential for abuse, but it's not as bad as either of the others.

hard for me to say between football and basketball, but to me it seems like every big game i've ever seen featured lots of holding calls designed to keep it close.

[JCool]

[ QUOTE ]
How is it not baseball?

Every non contacted pitch is up to the officials.

[/ QUOTE ]

How can it not be football? The officials arbitrarily determine the line of scrimmage after almost every play.

[jstnrgrs]

The answer is soccer. It is very easy for the ref to awary an undeserved penalty kick or red card. These are huge penalties that often change the outcome of the game.