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I saw this article too, and have some questions. Did each team really have four players who did not participate in the fight or enter the court from the bench? Seems very unlikely to me. One would think that all teams members would be in the mix in this situation, since no one would want to be branded a coward or someone that doesn't support his teammates. And 4 each??? Please, what are the odds of that! I truly hate to criticize other officials, but I have serious doubts about this being the way it actually played out.
I believe that in college the officials can use video tape to determine the participants in a fight (some of the college guys will either confirm this or set me straight), so maybe they could clearly see who did what, but wouldn't it be interesting to see the post-game report on that one!
I got a good piece of advice from a very experienced official when I was first starting. He told me that if you ever have a bench clearing brawl occur in a game, the best thing to do is note the names/numbers of all who participated in the fight and suspend the game at that point. This way the league office can handle the matter. It takes all the emphasis off the officials. The decision to continue or not with any remaining players can be made by the office.
Now for a D1 college game this may not be the proper solution as they have to do what the conference wants, but if it ever happens to me in a HS game, I am going to follow his advice.
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