CCHA official Matt Shegos is Biased?

I found this one reading the Blog that Yost Built. The black helicopters are circling Oxford, Ohio. The reason I posted this article is that people always say that Sioux fans are conspiracy theorists and that the league officials are out to get them. This would prove my point that is just isn't us. It appears to be college wide.

CCHA reffing situation ignores inherent biases

Some die-hard Miami hockey fans argue that college hockey referee Matt Shegos-a Michigan alum-is biased (Feb. 15, "CCHA approves alum reffing UM, MU series"). League officials have tried to argue that he is not. With all due respect to Director of CCHA Officials Steve Piotrowski and others who try to justify the conference's assignment of Shegos to referee the Miami-Michigan hockey game, they would do well to understand the meaning of the word bias.

According to The Miami Student article, "Piotrowski says that a fan's opinion from a school is most of the time based on that fan's biased support for the team … CCHA officials are all very well trained and to think that one would be biased toward one team is just plain wrong." Here's the problem: Fans may choose to be biased. Referees may hope that they are not biased. League officials may hope or even think that referees are not biased. However, bias is something that is not entirely controllable. A considerable body of research in psychology demonstrates that bias is both conscious and subconscious. Regardless of whether Shegos intends to be biased, he is biased.

Piotrowski argues that CCHA refs are very well trained. Does any of that training involve understanding where bias comes from or how bias subconsciously interferes with even well-intentioned decision-makers' thinking? I doubt it. Until and unless it does, it is not correct to argue that because the referees are well-trained, they are not biased. Even with such training, the referees in all likelihood will still be biased-though perhaps less so. Even with such training, the potential for subconscious bias will exist. This leads to the appearance of impropriety at the very least, as well as actually compromising the person's ability to discharge his professional responsibilities to the best of his ability. For these reasons, Piotrowski should reconsider the policy of assigning refs to games that include their alma maters.

Rebecca Luzadis
Associate Professor of Management
luzadirA@muohio.edu