I got a buddy who is a marketing professor at a smaller Midwest college. On the side, he and a collaborator did a study of penalties in EVERY FBS game for 20 yrs (ESPN has the data, they didn't look at the replays, just the statistics about how many, what type and when they were called). They took a list of identify "blue blood" programs (OSU, Mich, Alabama, Notre Dame, etc...there were 10 blue blood programs identify by ESPN is the early 2000s and yes, Nebraska was still on the list at that time).
Conclusions? Based on their study, they could find no bias for or against blue blood programs in terms of total penalties, when these penalties were called, or the severity of penalties. The populous has swore for years that Norte Dame, for instance, gets all the calls. They found no evidence to support this...