re: Should the SEC hire and train their own basketball officials?

Quick background: My wife was an Acad-All American Point Guard, became a college basketball coach, and then became an official as my job moved us too much (and babies came) for her to continue coaching.

1. You are talking Semantics. Yes, all officials pretty much everywhere in the U.S. are independent contractors. However, the SEC uses a single assigner who utilizes specific officials for SEC games. The assigner works closely with the SEC for training and managing that group of officials. Between every season, the assigner (based on their own evaluations and input from the conference/coaches), may not bring back a few officials and will add a few highly regarded officials working up from lower leagues. However, politics/friendships/reputations, can play, and like everywhere in our economy/culture, assigners can be reluctant to let go of an established official that has slipped a bit. Also, the number of games a ref is assigned can be greatly influenced by the conference and coaches based on who they think are the best officials. If a conference doesn't like the job their assigner is doing in selecting and scheduling refs, they will go get a different assigner.

2. The life of a certified official begins with high school ball (usually JV and lower). As they get better, they'll get varsity games, and then maybe playoffs. Some officials don't like the travel of college, and will stay at the high school level. But a good high school official can get picked up by a lower division (NAIA, JUCO, DIII) assigner. These games don't pay great, and the pay doesn't always even cover travel costs. These levels are putting in your dues of hoping to get picked up at a higher level. Assigners talk with each, and the best officials (or sometimes well connected) get picked up at DII, and then small DI. Finally, the officials that get picked up by the SEC assigner has been officiating for a long time, and has done very well through out their career. Big time DI college basketball pay over $1000 per game (I believe ACC refs make upwards of $3000 per conference game). But this is also the pinnacle (unless they do the flip to NBA), and some officials can lose the drive that got them to the top in the first place. But for the most part, these are the best officials in the country.

3. Officials work extremely hard at their trade. I can tell that from first hand experiece. They film study, and are critical of their own performances, and study their rule books, and get tested annualy. No official has ever, or will ever call a perfect game. Basketball is an extremely tough sport to officiate. The difference between a block and a charge can be fractions of a second.

4. Officials don't make the rules, they enforce them. Every year they have to incorporate new rules (or emphasis) items as handed down by the NCAA and the conferences.

5. I use to yell at officials (especially when my wife was a coach). Watching my wife go thru the process has given me a deep respect for those that do it. Often times, when a fan is upset, it is their own misunderstanding of the rules. The other night, we were watching a basketball game together where the announcers were talking about a "bad" call agaisnt the offense on an illegal screen because the offensive player was clearly set. My wife then explained why the announcers were wrong, because the play was in the backcourt and apparently the rulebook doesn't allow a "blind" screen and the defender needed so many steps to be able to get his head around and see the screen coming. Bottom-line, this happens all the time when we are at games or watching games at home and the fans get mad, and see'll explain why the call was in fact correct. Even coaches have misunderstandings of the rules.

6. Having lived in several different regions, I have noted a difference in the initial development of officials. The Mid-Atlantic was extremely impressive. I haven't been very impressed with the west coast, and she wasn't officiating when we lived in the south so I'm not sure there. I think the ACC and Big East have the best officials, and I attribute it to their system, especially in the first couple years of development and training. It is similar to the South having the best football players. It starts in Pop Warner and high school, long before the kids get to the SEC. If you want better officials in the south, start with how they are being developed as high school officials... and then wait 20 years for that trickle up effect to get to the SEC. Or better yet, stop your whining, sign up to become a local high school official, be good enough to get to the SEC, make a difference while making over $1000/game.