I thought somebody would find his interesting!
Article by CSN
Don't blame the refs, blame the horrible system that needs to be reigned in.
Everyone loves to blame college basketball referees for almost everything these days, but when you really examine things, the fault lies in an antiquated system that the officials work under and still at times is "the good old boys' network".
College basketball referees are independent contractors, who can work at present in as many conferences as want to take them. If you wish to find out how many conference a referee works in and what games they have worked not only this year or in past years, there is a great website to do as such, statsheet.com.
If everyone wants better officiating and I have not talked to a person in college basketball that does not, including several referees, then one thing needs to happen right away. College basketball referees need to be employees of the NCAA and governed by one single entity, the NCAA. And this does not mean they have to become full time employees, how about starting out as an employee. And by being employees, there needs to be one national supervisor, with a staff, who makes every assignment for every conference. Not the present system, where each conference has their own supervisor who assigns the league's pre-league and league games.
There is also concern by many coaches that officials are working too many games, many times several in a row. If you get that official on the last night of a long extended officiating trip, working several nights in a row across the country, he is just not going to be fresh and on top of his game, there is no way he can be. Not to pick on David Hall, but here is his recent schedule and he was not mentioned by name by the coaches I talked with about this problem.
David Hall is one of the best college basketball referees ever, he has worked many NCAA tournaments games and Final Fours. He has every right to do this as an independent contractor, no one can stop him, but here is just a sample of his schedule this year in November, in which he officiated 12 days in a row, in 11 different cities. It all started on November 10th when he worked in Corvallis and then on consecutive nights worked in Stanford, Berkley, Eugene, Seattle, Peoria Illinois, Santa Barbara, Albuquerque, Bakersfield, Las Vegas, Colorado Springs and ending his trip on November 21st at Stanford.
Now Mr. Hall and anyone else who wants to challenge me, might argue he was up to the task on that 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th day. Bring it on, but I say no way was he the same official, no matter how great he is, at the end of that trip as at the beginning. Once again the NBA gets it right, their officials are their employees, they space the games out, plenty of rest and down time, so they can be as fresh as possible. The NCAA so far turns the other cheek on this matter, something they really need to take control of very soon.
Officiating any sport can be tough, brutal and challenging. That is exactly why officials need down time, just like a Doctor, an astronaut on the International Space Station, a commercial pilot or any athlete. And yes, nothing will change until the basketball coaches and ADs force changes.
One last great argument for making the NCAA over everything. Many of these league supervisors of officials have summer camps and clinics. They have the right to do that, but there is also much hidden pressure on officials who are moving up to attend these summer camps. Many young officials I have talked with feel it might affect future assignments. You be your own lawyer here. Just follow the money.
So the next time you see a good official, having a bad night, you might want to check his schedule. Statesheet.com