[drothamel]

Just to divert us back to the original discussion for a second. . .I think that having NCAA officials as opposed to conference officials could be done. It doesn't seem to me that it would be much different than the situation now with regard to travel etc. The officials working the big D1 conferences come from all over the country and travel all over as well. You would still have that geographic component with regard to assignments. It seems that one big hurdle would be compensation. My understanding is that every conference pays differently. Would the NCAA have to institute some kind of pay scale that ranks the conferneces? That would seem to ruffle some feathers even if you paid everyone the same thing across the board in D1. Also, would it just be done for D1, or for every division? Doing that would be a MAJOR undertaking. I have also heard that one concern is whether or not to employ the officials or allow them to continue to be independent contractors. Just some thoughts, but I do think that having NCAA officials does bear some consideration