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I think the reason that is a current possible problem in basketball is that those officials, while working nationally in the tournament, are still working for THEIR CONFERENCE. If there were no officials working for a conference at all - just officials working for the NCAA, there would be no reason for bias or even perceived bias.
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I don't believe this would be the case, since the supervisor has to come from somewhere and will have had to be an official in one or more conferences. In basketball, it is (or has been) Fred Barakat who worked in the ACC for years and on mostly on the east coast his entire career. Let's say in football its John Bible. He's going to train on mechanics that he and his Big 12 coharts have been doing, which may or may not agree with what's going on in the Pac 10, or on the east coast. Now, he assigns the bowl games and the big ones go to a Big 12 or MWC crew because they're better at the mechanics Bible wants.
I think in basketball, what's happened at the major D-I level is that there has been a consolodation of assigning coordinators in the last 15 years. Guys assign multiple conferences and their guys still work for multiple assignors. That's not the case in football, and it might well take years before it becomes a no-bias deal.