The "Alabama Gets All The Calls" Myth Is Dead

Despite what fans of Auburn and LSU claim the numbers show that Alabama doesn’t get favored by officials.

We’ve all seen it, fans of the teams Alabama plays crying about the Tide being favored by the officials. LSU fans in particular love to take it to extremes, even claiming that the SEC office being in Birmingham is a sign of a vast conspiracy for the Tide. When you actually look at the numbers though that’s not the case at all.

Alabama isn’t favored by officials, in fact Bama’s opponents may be given more leeway because they are playing the Tide.

Officials are of course supposed to call every penalty they see, but they are only human. If you’re getting beat down by the Tide and there’s a minor penalty call that could go either way the officials are probably not going to call it. It’s only human to not be ticky tacky on a team that’s already getting beat. Since Alabama is often beating down opponents it makes sense that they might end up last in the FBS in opponent penalties.

Now LSU fans probably have a conspiracy theory as to why these numbers lie and Nick Saban melts steel beams, but numbers don’t lie. The Tide isn’t favored by officials, in fact it’s the opposite. If anything officials let Bama opponents get away with more than anyone else.

So the next time you see a fan of a team the Tide has just beaten down by 40 points claim that a missed holding call in the second quarter was the reason their team got trounced you can direct them to this post, and explain that no one is buying their conspiracy theories anymore.

What do you think? Does Alabama get favors from officials or do the numbers not lie? Let us know on Facebook or in the comments below.