How much do they make generally? Assume you earn more if you're behind the plate.

Also, do the umps for our games only belong to the SEC or do they work for other conferences?

Does the umpire team stay together or is it a mix-match with other umps.

Not much. Most of them have day jobs.

All SEC games are SEC crews. Midweeks are not.

I think only crew chief makes more. The same guys call a lot of games together but it's not always the same 4. But it's not a true mix up.

trouble said:

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Not much. Most of them have day jobs.

All SEC games are SEC crews. Midweeks are not.

I think only crew chief makes more. The same guys call a lot of games together but it's not always the same 4. But it's not a true mix up.

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most should just stick to their day jobs

Its hard to find good one for mlb much less the sec. Just put the abs system into play and use technology to make the game better

They are bad. Like weathermen bad. They find all kinds of ways to be wrong and still get to keep their jobs.

trouble said:

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Not much. Most of them have day jobs.

All SEC games are SEC crews. Midweeks are not.

I think only crew chief makes more. The same guys call a lot of games together but it's not always the same 4. But it's not a true mix up.

---

Correct. Crew chief gets a slight premium. I haven't seen pay for a while but it used to be a little over $1,000 per game. They rotate who is behind the plate so in a three game series, all but one will take a game. Most umps prefer working plate and would do it for less of you ask them because there is more action.

As for those that are critical of them, face it, even the robo ump system would have some of you complaining. Average SEC ump gets 92-93% of ball/strike calls right. MLB is around 94%.

the abs system is great. Let the technology do the work with a system they all agree upon and give players or coaches a few challenges. I'm saying do it like mlb. Not every ball and strike be called by a computer. Let the coach have the challenges. Worked amazingly in spring training imo.

I'm of the belief that every pitch should be called by roboump

A team shouldn't be bound to only a certain number of challenges - or feel the need to save a challenge for a more important time - just get the pitches called correctly from the start.

We have the technology to do it today....and most if not all SEC stadiums already have it installed.

This is an absolute no brainer.

MLB is hamstrung in imolementing it somewhat because of the unions and the bargaining agreements....but the SEC shouldn't be and should lead the way to normalizing it.

Kansas Kid said:

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trouble said:

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Not much. Most of them have day jobs.

All SEC games are SEC crews. Midweeks are not.

I think only crew chief makes more. The same guys call a lot of games together but it's not always the same 4. But it's not a true mix up.

---

Correct. Crew chief gets a slight premium. I haven't seen pay for a while but it used to be a little over $1,000 per game. They rotate who is behind the plate so in a three game series, all but one will take a game. Most umps prefer working plate and would do it for less of you ask them because there is more action.

As for those that are critical of them, face it, even the robo ump system would have some of you complaining. Average SEC ump gets 92-93% of ball/strike calls right. MLB is around 94%.

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I don't believe that number for a second.

TAMU1990 said:

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They are bad. Like weathermen bad. They find all kinds of ways to be wrong and still get to keep their jobs.

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They're definitely weatherman bad…but thankfully not economist bad.

Ags #1 said:

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the abs system is great. Let the technology do the work with a system they all agree upon and give players or coaches a few challenges. I'm saying do it like mlb. Not every ball and strike be called by a computer. Let the coach have the challenges. Worked amazingly in spring training imo.

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I think the challenge system is a good idea. I think it interesting that the MLB success on challenges is only around 50% which I find intriguing since they are presumably only challenging calls they are almost certain (ie >90%) certain they are right.

AgRyan04 said:

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Kansas Kid said:

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trouble said:

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Not much. Most of them have day jobs.

All SEC games are SEC crews. Midweeks are not.

I think only crew chief makes more. The same guys call a lot of games together but it's not always the same 4. But it's not a true mix up.

---

Correct. Crew chief gets a slight premium. I haven't seen pay for a while but it used to be a little over $1,000 per game. They rotate who is behind the plate so in a three game series, all but one will take a game. Most umps prefer working plate and would do it for less of you ask them because there is more action.

As for those that are critical of them, face it, even the robo ump system would have some of you complaining. Average SEC ump gets 92-93% of ball/strike calls right. MLB is around 94%.

---

I don't believe that number for a second.

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Thanks for proving my point that some people would still complain about a robot ump system because that is where the data comes from.

AggieArchitect04 said:

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Also, do the umps for our games only belong to the SEC or do they work for other conferences?

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I'm pretty decent friends with a guy who's worked D1 college baseball for well over a decade and regionals for about the last half dozen years or so. Its been a while since we discussed particulars (I'd say somewhere around 2019), but I don't think things have changed greatly.

As far as the SEC itself, I can't speak to what they are doing right now, but as of a couple of years ago, almost all of the major conferences use a regional assignor who sends guys out to weekend series. Umpires work for one or more assignors. Mid-week games are assigned by these guys and others -- in other words, someone might assign midweek games for A&M, tech, t.u., Baylor, TCU, DBU, Sam, Rice (...) -- obviously without respect to conference. I know my buddy has told his midweek guy the places he's willing to go (w/in 3-ish hours of DFW) and not willing to go (tech, for example). Weekends are obviously different -- he may be in Lexington this weekend, Houston next, and LA the next, depending on the games the assignors he works for make assignments for. I don't know if he gets a full season of games up front, but he knew his early season schedule back in November when we spoke last.

Again, as of a couple of years ago, the ACC was one of the few conferences in baseball that kept their assignments in house. At least, that was my understanding. It is quite possible it goes back and forth for all the conferences and has for a while.

This type of system has been in place in basketball for 3 decades. Not all conferences use it, but even those that keep their own staff often utilize guys from all over the country. That wasn't the case in the SWC days -- everyone pretty much had a set staff, though some guys worked for more than one conference. I know a ton of guys still working (or were within the last 4 years) D1 college hoops but I haven't talked to any of them in months or years and haven't talked to them about any of these issues. I'll see if I can get some updated information.

Football is different. They work primarily in crews and are assigned by their conference supervisor. As far as pay goes, right now it (football) is somewhere in the $3500 range, all in (i.e. gross, where they cover their expenses), for the larger conferences like the SEC. I talked to a former crew mate of mine, who worked the A&M/t.u. game and has been climbing the D1 ladder for several years, back in December. I worked with another friend of mine on the field at the start of 2023 who's an SEC Back Judge. We talked about some SEC topics and where he was working the next few weekends (since around 2010, they've only gotten about 4-6 weeks worth of game schedules at a time). Years ago, guys knew if and where they'd be working on Thanksgiving weekend in the early summer. No more.

Some of the umps are really, really bad. However, nothing pisses me off more than when replay is used and they STILL get the call wrong - or even worse when they overturn the call on the field when there was no clear evidence.

(When I say "they", I realize the call may be made from somewhere else like Birmingham)

AgRyan04 said:

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Kansas Kid said:

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trouble said:

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Not much. Most of them have day jobs.

All SEC games are SEC crews. Midweeks are not.

I think only crew chief makes more. The same guys call a lot of games together but it's not always the same 4. But it's not a true mix up.

---

Correct. Crew chief gets a slight premium. I haven't seen pay for a while but it used to be a little over $1,000 per game. They rotate who is behind the plate so in a three game series, all but one will take a game. Most umps prefer working plate and would do it for less of you ask them because there is more action.

As for those that are critical of them, face it, even the robo ump system would have some of you complaining. Average SEC ump gets 92-93% of ball/strike calls right. MLB is around 94%.

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I don't believe that number for a second.

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92-93% isn't as impressive as it sounds. I'd guess something like 50%-70% of those calls are "gimmes" (clearly in the zone or clearly out). If they're hitting the gimmes at a 100%, then that means they're more like 70-80% on the non obvious calls.

A more meaningful accuracy measurement would be %calls correct within a ball of the strike zone boundary.

aggietony2010 said:

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AgRyan04 said:

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Kansas Kid said:

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trouble said:

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Not much. Most of them have day jobs.

All SEC games are SEC crews. Midweeks are not.

I think only crew chief makes more. The same guys call a lot of games together but it's not always the same 4. But it's not a true mix up.

---

Correct. Crew chief gets a slight premium. I haven't seen pay for a while but it used to be a little over $1,000 per game. They rotate who is behind the plate so in a three game series, all but one will take a game. Most umps prefer working plate and would do it for less of you ask them because there is more action.

As for those that are critical of them, face it, even the robo ump system would have some of you complaining. Average SEC ump gets 92-93% of ball/strike calls right. MLB is around 94%.

---

I don't believe that number for a second.

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92-93% isn't as impressive as it sounds. I'd guess something like 50%-70% of those calls are "gimmes" (clearly in the zone or clearly out). If they're hitting the gimmes at a 100%, then that means they're more like 70-80% on the non obvious calls.

A more meaningful accuracy measurement would be %calls correct within a ball of the strike zone boundary.

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"There are lies, damn lies, and statistics." - Mark Twain

Given that most of the pitches especially the balls are obvious they are overwhelmingly called correctly

Using that assumption approximately 1/3 of the pitches require the Ump to use his judgement to make a call if he is missing on 7% out of 33% that is more like 20% error rate not 7%

Obviously you can quibble about the %'s but if you exclude the no doubt pitches from the sample, the denominator gets smaller , the number of bad calls stays the same , the error percentage doubles-triples

Kansas Kid said:

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AgRyan04 said:

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Kansas Kid said:

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trouble said:

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Not much. Most of them have day jobs.

All SEC games are SEC crews. Midweeks are not.

I think only crew chief makes more. The same guys call a lot of games together but it's not always the same 4. But it's not a true mix up.

---

Correct. Crew chief gets a slight premium. I haven't seen pay for a while but it used to be a little over $1,000 per game. They rotate who is behind the plate so in a three game series, all but one will take a game. Most umps prefer working plate and would do it for less of you ask them because there is more action.

As for those that are critical of them, face it, even the robo ump system would have some of you complaining. Average SEC ump gets 92-93% of ball/strike calls right. MLB is around 94%.

---

I don't believe that number for a second.

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Thanks for proving my point that some people would still complain about a robot ump system because that is where the data comes from.

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Maybe people seeing a consistantly accurate strikezone would change their perception of what a strike actually looks like. Its very simple, if I knew there was one of these for every pitch, showing accountability, I would have no reason to complain.



Either way, the only argument agaist it appears to be, "We shouldn't change a bad system that we know is innacurate to a new system that gets the call correct because people might still complain". That, to me, is not even an argument. The entire purpose of the home plate umpire is to correctly call balls and strikes, so there isn't any reason to implement something we KNOW is, as you say, 7-8% MORE accurate and let the players on the field determine the outcome of the game on every pitch.

And after watching last night's game there is 0% chance that 92% of the pitches were correctly called.

Kansas Kid said:

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trouble said:

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Not much. Most of them have day jobs.

All SEC games are SEC crews. Midweeks are not.

I think only crew chief makes more. The same guys call a lot of games together but it's not always the same 4. But it's not a true mix up.

---

Correct. Crew chief gets a slight premium. I haven't seen pay for a while but it used to be a little over $1,000 per game. They rotate who is behind the plate so in a three game series, all but one will take a game. Most umps prefer working plate and would do it for less of you ask them because there is more action.

As for those that are critical of them, face it, even the robo ump system would have some of you complaining. Average SEC ump gets 92-93% of ball/strike calls right. MLB is around 94%.

---

$1000 for, say, a 4 hour game is $250 an hour. Not bad!
Are their travel expenses paid for or do those come out of pocket?

ensign_beedrill said:

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Kansas Kid said:

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trouble said:

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Not much. Most of them have day jobs.

All SEC games are SEC crews. Midweeks are not.

I think only crew chief makes more. The same guys call a lot of games together but it's not always the same 4. But it's not a true mix up.

---

Correct. Crew chief gets a slight premium. I haven't seen pay for a while but it used to be a little over $1,000 per game. They rotate who is behind the plate so in a three game series, all but one will take a game. Most umps prefer working plate and would do it for less of you ask them because there is more action.

As for those that are critical of them, face it, even the robo ump system would have some of you complaining. Average SEC ump gets 92-93% of ball/strike calls right. MLB is around 94%.

---

$1000 for, say, a 4 hour game is $250 an hour. Not bad!
Are their travel expenses paid for or do those come out of pocket?

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If it is like basketball, they pay their own expenses.

AgRyan04 said:

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I'm of the belief that every pitch should be called by roboump

A team shouldn't be bound to only a certain number of challenges - or feel the need to save a challenge for a more important time - just get the pitches called correctly from the start.

We have the technology to do it today....and most if not all SEC stadiums already have it installed.

This is an absolute no brainer.

MLB is hamstrung in imolementing it somewhat because of the unions and the bargaining agreements....but the SEC shouldn't be and should lead the way to normalizing it.

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Can't wait for them to start using it so I can hack it and cause some chaos.

Seriously, though, baseball is a human game. Leave robots out of it.

I just strongly disagree - I believe the game should be determined by the players on the field and the influence of human judges, when given an unbiased accurate solution, should be minimized in any way possible.

I've watched it in the minor leagues for the last couple years in Round Rock and when challenged they are able to instantly show on the screen if the pitch was a ball or a strike....to a fraction of an inch. The fact that it has to be a challenge and isn't just "the way" is just completely baffling to me.

Last year in Omaha, you may remember the phantom check swing in the FSU v Tennessee game. Everyone was arguing whether the Tennessee batter held his swing on what should have been the strikeout to end the game and he went on to reach base and the Vols won the game.



No one questioned until later if the pitch was a strike irregardless of check swing.

We see it every night at the big league level. Jazz Chisolm got ejected just last night over a pitch blatantly low and outside.



He reacted incorrectly - but he wasn't wrong about it being ball 4.

You notice that in the big leagues the TV networks will show the box of the strikezone - you don't see that on college broadcasts - even for CWS games. There is a reason for that.

Bindy and Earley would echo my argument that 92% isn't good enough!

And that would have 100% changed the inning. Bring on abs!!

It's astonishing how bad they are at their jobs.

Anyone arguing against roboumps at this level is just dumb.

Brauny went on a rant this morning on Texags Radio about SEC officiating.

Feels like they suck at football and hoops but are way worse at baseball

AgRyan04 said:

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Bindy and Earley would echo my argument that 92% isn't good enough!

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Worse yet, I believe that was a 3-2 pitch which should have loaded the bases.

I believe so

David Savage will be HP Ump in game 2.

BurnetAggie99 said:

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David Savage will be HP Ump in game 2.

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Are we sure? It really should be Criks

The umpires in this series have been horrendous…… even in our win!

AgRyan04 said:

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You notice that in the big leagues the TV networks will show the box of the strikezone - you don't see that on college broadcasts - even for CWS games. There is a reason for that.

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I actually have a big problem with the strikezone box. It makes the zone look like a plane. It's not a plane. It's a prism.