[mcrowder]

I actually like the idea of the NCAA ponying up the money to put all of the officials under one umbrella and supporting their travel all over. Better crews would go to the most important games, regardless of conference. You wouldn't have ridiculous mechanics which prevent you from seeing the ball while it's live, like we have on one conference. There would be less perceived bias (whether one exists or not is immaterial - it's the perception that matters here). More uniformity. Better training if there was one big clinic instead of a multitude of clinics. Etc.

I don't think it would work for high school though, as the travel becomes a significant issue. I know that in Texas if two teams can't agree on a local crew and one has to be flown in from another chapter, it's VERY expensive (compared with what they would normally pay for officials). I think it might be a bigger problem in large states than small, and perhaps some geographically small states could get by with just one association (and if they could, it would probably be beneficial). I just don't see it working in Texas, California, Florida, or even most of the midwest/west.