How Automated Officiating Could End Star Treatment

Today’s guest column is from professors John Cairney and Rick Burton.

Every sport has its own version of star treatment. </p><strong>More from Sportico.com</strong><p>
NBA fans have long suspected the biggest names, from MJ to SGA, get foul calls that role players do not. NFL supporters argue franchise quarterbacks are more carefully protected than their less prominent counterparts. Soccer fans think the world's most powerful clubs receive the benefit of doubt during decisive moments.


Baseball had even created the perception that certain accomplished pitchers (i.e., Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine) had "earned" the edges of the strike zone. 


The phrase sounds harmless … suggesting excellence creates credibility, one of the beneficial privileges found with sustained success. 


But does this effect really happen? How prevalent is it? And what could be done to try to stop it (assuming anyone would want to)? 


A new study of automated officiating in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) offers compelling evidence that high-status batters lost part of their relative advantage after the league removed human judgment from ball-strike decisions.


Jimin Song, Ji Hyuk Kang and Richard J. Paulsen from the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology found celebrated players remained successful. What changed was the system through which one important part of their performance was evaluated. 


For leaders, that distinction matters far beyond baseball, because organizations routinely ask managers, recruiters, promotion committees and talent scouts to objectively evaluate people. Yet those decisions are rarely made without knowledge of reputation, institutional pedigree, previous awards or existing status.  


Leaders may insist merit determines outcomes while consistently leaving intact systems in which status influences what merit looks like. But here's the newfound kicker: Automated officiating presents more than a technological experiment. It offers a leadership lesson in how evaluation systems can create, reinforce—or interrupt—advantage. 


The KBO became the first major professional baseball league to implement a fully automated ball-strike system at its highest level in 2024, with an ABS system that immediately transmits its decision to the home-plate umpire through an earpiece. 


The change allowed Song, Kang and Paulsen to treat the introduction of ABS as a natural experiment. They compared the performances of 148 batters and 112 pitchers who played in the seasons immediately before and after its implementation. </p><h2>
    Man vs. Machine </h2><p>
The researchers classified players by status using their history of recognition in the KBO's Golden Glove awards, an honor recognizing KBO excellence in all facets of the game (hitting, fielding and base running). They then examined whether the adoption of ABS affected higher-status and lower-status players differently.  


The results were striking. 


After ABS was introduced, high-status batters experienced a significant decline relative to lower-status batters across several measures closely connected to ball-strike decisions. Their on-base percentage fell by approximately 7% relative to the comparison group. Their walk percentage declined, their strikeout percentage increased, and their walk-to-strikeout ratio dropped substantially. 


Broader measures incorporating the ability to hit the ball didn't decline significantly. In other words, prominent batters did not suddenly forget how to hit. Their relative disadvantage appeared most clearly in outcomes dependent on whether marginal pitches were called balls or strikes. 


The authors found no equivalent status-related effect among pitchers and offered several reasons why: Pitcher performance is more variable; starting pitchers may be relieved before poor performances accumulate; pitchers receive more continuous/instant feedback from the automated system. Prominent hurlers may, therefore, have adapted more quickly than elite batters. 


Interestingly, these findings arrive at a particularly important moment for MLB. 


MLB introduced its own ABS challenge system in 2026 but stopped short of instituting the KBO's fully automated model … meaning human umpires continue calling every pitch. Batters, pitchers and catchers can challenge decisions, with the tracking system resolving the appeal. Teams begin with two challenges, retaining them when successful.  


It's a carefully constructed compromise. MLB gains the accuracy and drama of technological review while preserving the authority, presence and traditional role of the home-plate umpire. 


Still, Korea's experience raises a question about whether MLB's system goes far enough. Korea automated the original judgment. MLB only automated the appeal. 


If status influences borderline decisions, that influence can still affect every unchallenged pitch. And because challenges are scarce, players must decide which errors are sufficiently important—and which judgments to confidently contest. 


In other words, the system may correct obvious mistakes without eliminating the subtle accumulation of marginal advantage. 


There is also another possibility. Established players are likely better equipped to use the challenge system. Experience, confidence, detailed preparation and organizational standing could all influence a player's willingness to challenge an umpire. A hybrid system designed to reduce one form of inequality could leave room for another. 


Of course, we would be remiss if we didn't acknowledge what scientists call the Hawthorne effect—if you know (or just think) you are being watched, you will change your behavior. Umpires know they are being watched by ABS, which is probably good enough to curb status bias.


The good news is MLB has created an enormous new dataset for researchers like Song and her team, one capable of showing which players challenge, who succeeds, when calls are overturned and whether reputation influences unreviewed decisions. </p><h2>
    Leadership Implications     </h2><p>
Song, Kang and Paulsen argue their findings speak to a much broader challenge facing leaders: How to design evaluation systems capable of minimizing the influence of status, familiarity and unconscious bias. They point to evidence from labor economics showing that blind auditions increased the likelihood women were selected for professional orchestras and to research demonstrating anonymized recruitment processes can reduce bias in hiring.  


Fairer outcomes often depend less on asking people to be more objective than on redesigning the systems through which judgments are made. For leaders in sport, however, the challenge is more complicated. 


While fair play is an essential element of sport, it's hard suggesting pro sport is a meritocracy because, if we're honest, it's also entertainment. The biggest stars attract audiences, drive sponsorship and build narratives sustaining leagues over generations. Familiarity breeds revenue. If technologies such as ABS reduce even subtle advantages associated with reputation, they may also, unintentionally, change how sporting heroes emerge and endure.  


Greater accuracy may be good for fairness, but it could also shorten periods of dominance that historically helped leagues build global brands. 


This is not an argument against automated officiating. Rather, it's a reminder every leadership decision creates trade-offs. Technology rarely changes only the process it was designed to improve. Instead, it often reshapes incentives, alters competitive dynamics and influences value creation across entire sectors. 


One leadership question, then, is not whether automated officiating produces more accurate decisions, but whether a league's leaders are prepared for broader consequences.

John Cairney is the dean of the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan and the author of the baseball books Immaculate: A History of Perfect Innings in Baseball and Field of Magic: Baseball’s Superstitions, Curses and Taboos. Rick Burton is Syracuse University’s David Falk Emeritus Professor of Sport Management, co-host of the NIL Clubhouse podcast and co-author of The Rise of Major League Soccer and Business the NHL Way. 

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