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Originally Posted by Ohioref3
I am from the Toledo area but was on the west coast for some time and know some refs from Cali. and Vegas. What is the deal with the Vegas officials, I was told very, very few refs even make it do Division 1 out of Vegas and that is hard to imagine with I think around 2 million people living out there. I heard that there are maybe 2 or 3 D1 refs from that area and I was wondering why so few. Maybe you can give some insight to that since you are from that area. I know that UNLV is in that area and they are right next to California and with all the basketball that goes through there the refs must have alot of exposure. I was reading in an article that Vegas is top 3 in the country that puts on high level tournaments and has NBA summer league is out there. What is the deal with the limited number of refs working D1 from Vegas?
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While tomegun would know better than I, especially for the southern part of the state, but it is my opinion that the lack of colleges in the immediate area is the main reason. There are only two D1 schools in the entire state (Nevada in Reno and UNLV in Vegas) and they are about 450 miles apart. There is not a single D2 or D3 school. Additionally, I don't believe that there is a JC which fields a team in Vegas, I know that there is not one in Reno. There does seem to be a community college that plays though. The closest up here are some CA JCs that are about 80 miles away and that league does NOT pay travel for the officials. So with the gas prices, you end up working the game for free or actually losing money.
The rural geographic layout of the population in this state creates an isolation which makes travel a major roadblock for officials. There simply are not the necessary schools around to provide the training ground for moving up the ranks to a D1 spot. The Vegas guys and gals have to break in over in southern Cal.
There certainly are quality officials here, as there are currently about 4 Vegas based refs in the PAC10, but the difficulties that are encountered in making it to the college level are significant. For example, many D2 assignors from the Sacramento area are uneasy about hiring Reno area refs and assigning them to games because these people must travel over the Sierra mountain range in the middle of the winter in order to work those games. This is an area which is noted for big snow storms and they just aren't comfortable with all the missed assignments and delays that the travel conditions cause. Afterall Reno/Tahoe hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics and we have all heard of the Donner party!
Compare that situation to the DC area which has multiple schools in and a big population in a rather compact geographical area, decent winter weather, and a wealth of small and mid-major conferences.
Anyway, that is my theory.