Officiating in the SEC: Where do we go from here?

I'm taking it as a given that all of us have had our issues with the zebra's. LSU's melts are well known-both historically and down through the years to the present day-but each of our member institutions have fallen prey to Dragonfly Eyes Ritter and Penncil Neck Wagers (though admittedly he's off to shake down ACC coaches nowadays, he's still blessedly not our problem unless we have some inter-conference games) and their ilk.

With malice towards none and charity towards all, I have a potential solution to the officiating problems we see and complain about every Saturday Night in game threads on the Scoreboard, on our Team Pages here and on tSECr.

Quite simply put, the SEC has a prime opportunity to become a leader in competence and compensation when it comes to sports officiating in collegiate athletics and on a world-wide level from a sports perspective. How you might ask? Well, allow me to explain (For those of you who haven't bailed for the tl;dr canned responses and image memes yet).

In both the professional and collegiate levels of athletics, data analysis is becoming more and more prevalent. Its use and implementation to gain an edge is becoming more and more commonplace with each passing professional and collegiate sports season.

At the same time, the SEC yielded each of its 14 member institutions over $20,000,000.00(USD) in just the first year of the SECNetwork's existence. With no signs of slowing down, the goose laying the SEC's Golden Egg has the ability to help us set standards in officiating, from a compensation (by paying for the absolute best) and a quality (by applying data analysis techniques to their work) perspective.

First: Pay our referees-in each revenue-producing sport-to be paid at such a level as to render outside employment in the offseason unnecessary. To appease potential Title IX concerns, Women's Basketball, Softball, Soccer and perhaps others may also fit under the cap for paid referees based on a feasibility study.

Simply allow our referees to not have to worry about their 9-5 on Monday. Their job is to be a ref, and the best one they can be at that. By paying them a fantastic salary that allows them to no longer worry about outside employment, we achieve two immediate goals:

1.) Instantly attract the highest quality and caliber of referees in each sport the salary is offered from around the nation or world.
2.) Require higher standards of accountability, performance and overall competence (more about that below).

By rewarding them with a handsome salary while also freeing them from financial constraints, you create a higher quality supply from which to feed your officiating demand, which results in better officiating across the board.

Which is a recruiting nugget we can use conference-wide.

Conversely, with great compensation comes greater responsibility and accountability. This is where the data analysis portion of my suggestion comes into play.

The one aspect of modern sport that doesn't seem to get the proper amount of analysis is officiating. Just as important as LeBron's tendencies to drive left when picked up at the top of the key which drives his shooting percentage down is what crew is working and do they have a tendency to call more aggressively when aggressive defense is employed on players?

Officials jobs are to be impartial and unbiased but those two term's root word are inherent as a part of the human condition. Folks may laugh off talk of Tom Ritter or Penn Wagers, but they're just as human as we are, and they're just as prone to carry a bias as anyone else. Like it or not its just reality.

What we can do is manage the job they perform via metrics. Which SEC Officiating Crew calls the most holding penalties? Which SEC Ref calls the most fouls inside the paint? Can we come up with a metric for officials the same way we do for QBR?

I think we can...and while some schools are no doubt already applying statistical analysis and have been doing so for years, applying it publicly and transparently-by releasing the statistics and metrics on officials we employ-would be a HUGE precedent setter for the SEC and for organized sport worldwide.

You wanna talk about the zebras? You wanna bitch about balls and strikes? Well every Monday we're going to publish our metrics and stats that track individual and officiating crews and you can see for yourself.

In exchange for stringent reviews and merit-based assignments which are based on publicly available metrics anyone on Earth can see, we're going to pay the best refs on Earth to do it year-round.

Wanna officiate in the SEC? We'll pay you like kings, but we'll hold you to exacting standards, and on top of that, we'll put you in a massive amount of professional development, physical fitness reviews and the like.

Don't think other conferences, and perhaps other organizations and professional governing leagues wouldn't follow suit?

WTF not?

Vegas would love us. No more worry about whether our refs are biased. You'd see it in black and white and the public reaction would be enough to keep any potential rogue in line.

Beyond all of this, it would shut us all up regarding bias because once and for all, it'd be out there for us all to see and either put up or shut up about.

If you're still reading, nice job staying awake.