[Brad]

Originally Posted by brainbrian

It's my understanding that the NCAA does not allow conferences to require officials to pay fees to be assigned.

The conferences do not charge fees to be assigned, but usually every conference or group of officials under a given coordinator has an association that they pay dues to. It goes for good things, like helping out officials in that group in need, sending flowers for funerals, etc. It's not much—usually $100 a year or so.

Originally Posted by brainbrian

Although, you could easily say that conferences requiring officials to go to camp and pay a camp fee is considered paying an assigning fee and I believe this is pretty common.

Pretty much. It's not a “requirement” per se, but who is going to buck the system? It's pretty much unspoken that if you are receiving assignments and are not asked to instruct at the camp, you should be attending.

Originally Posted by brainbrian

For any official to work the NCAA tournament they have to join the NCAA section of Arbiter which I believe is $100, you could consider that an assigning fee.

You could consider it that except that (1) it doesn't guarantee you an assignment and (2) it is not promoted as only being for those that expect or would like to be considered for an NCAA tournament assignment.

You have to had 25 D1 games before you are eligible for the tourney, so there are plenty of officials who are under that number—I'd estimate probably half of them! To my knowledge, most coordinators expect anyone on their staff to join—and they get a list of those who have and have not. Plus, that's how you take the test and all coordinators expect that as well.