A study by two professors has found that college basketball referees favor the home team and tend to do what they can to keep foul counts close.

The professors, from Indiana University and Ball State, studied 365 college games during the 2004-05 season. They found that refs had a terrific knack for keeping the foul count even, regardless of which team was more aggressive.

Their findings were published The Journal of Sports Sciences earlier this year. They discovered that the probability of a foul being called on the visiting team was 7 percent higher than on the home team.

The professors also discovered that in games when the home team had five or more fouls than the visiting team, there was a 69 percent chance the visitors would be whistled for the next foul.