[OldFanDan]

Originally Posted by RichMSN

I bet he wishes he had the power to affect the officials the conferences hire.

Don't think for one second that his decisions can't affect the assignors for each and every conference.

All he (and by extension, the NCAA) has to do is set up parameters of who does / does not qualify to work NCAAT games and all assignors will make their hires accordingly. The assignors will quickly realize that their conference must fall into line with the others or possibly be penalized for following arbitrary 'guidelines.' If the assignor hires outside these parameters, then the officials who work for his conference wouldn't get any NCAAT games; pretty simple concept. That would certainly get the attention of all the assignors and all the officials.

The saddest part of watching many of these once great officials work big games is that some of them are working on their reputations only; they have slowed down, or their eyes aren't as good, whatever ... but they are not able to do the job that they once did so well. With the big money available today I suppose it is very difficult to realize that perhaps they should get out, for the good of the game.

As far as the assignors wanting 'experienced' officials on their big games: the Rutgers / St. John's fiasco had a crew with perhaps 90 years experience (I'm guessing here) ... does anybody here dispute the fact that a crew with a combined experience of less than 25 years could have screwed it up any worse than the 'experienced' guys did?

As far as one comment that I read here that nobody feels any worse about the Rutgers / St. John's screwup than the three officials: I suppose the players on the team who got screwed out of the chance to win and advance might feel worse. After all, I'm sure that the three officials collected their full game fees and expenses. Pretty nice salve for doing a very poor job.