New poster here. I wondered what the reaction would be to Doug Gottlieb's accusations toward Rick Hartzell. I guess I expected a bit more outrage from a group of officials. Apparently the B10 was outraged send the following message to ESPN (for context, Gottliebs comments are listed at the bottom):

March 4, 2005

Park Ridge, IL -- The Big Ten has communicated its extreme disappointment and concern to ESPN's management relative to statements made by Mr. Doug Gottlieb at the halftime of Thursday's Purdue at Illinois basketball game on ESPN2.

Specifically Mr. Gottlieb called into question the integrity of Mr. Rick Hartzell, an official in Tuesday's Indiana at Wisconsin basketball game, telecast by ESPN.

In addition Mr. Gottlieb questioned the professionalism of Big Ten Associate Commissioner Rich Falk relative to the administration of the Big Ten's men's basketball officiating program.

Neither statement should have been made, and in our view these statements represent an example of irresponsible sports `reporting'. It is unfortunate that Mr. Gottlieb, whose own reputation for honest dealings has been called into question in the past, has been placed in the position by ESPN to pass judgment on a well-regarded, veteran official working a Big Ten basketball game, and a Big Ten associate commissioner who has rendered valuable service to the Conference and college basketball for decades.

The Big Ten Conference considers this matter concluded and will have no further comment.

TRANSCRIPT OF DOUG GOTTLIEB'S COMMENTS DURING HALFTIME OF ESPN2'S COVERAGE OF THE PURDUE-ILLINOIS GAME MARCH 3, 2005:

"As we take you back to Tuesday night Indiana-Wisconsin it's obvious that there may not be a real clear cut, a clear cut bad call made on this particular play.

But if you watch it there is the appearance that maybe there is a conflict of interest. You know, Indiana trailed by one and it looked like Wilkinson fouls on the play...Mike Wilkinson fouls on the play. Mike Davis obviously went nuts but Rick Hartzell was the official who was in position.

And that conflict of interest or at least the appearance of the conflict of interest is apparent because Rick Hartzell is the athletic director at Northern Iowa. Now if he's the AD for a bubble team, why is he officiating a game involving another bubble team in a game that could cost Mike Davis his job, and could definitely cost Indiana a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament?

I'm not saying there is a clear cut conflict of interest, but there is at least that appearance. And it lends the question, why is Rich Falk assigning him to a game in the Big Ten? He's the conference officials commissioner, and why is he assigning him to this game, and why wasn't a switch made at the last second so that there's never that appearance? When it was obviously at least to Steve Lavin, who was calling the game as the color man for ESPN. He said it was a bad call. I agree. It was a totally blown missed call. But now there the appearance of the conflict of interest because there's no call made and because he's the AD at Northern Iowa."

Welcome to the forum. Here's a thread that was already started: http://www.officialforum.com/thread/18910

This group of officials doesn't put much stock into what announcers say. They know next to nothing about rules, officiating, or fair play. Why should we be surprised when they accuse us of cheating? They do it all the time.

Good for the Big 10. Gottlieb and Lavin were both 100% wrong, as replays showed definitively.

Hartzell - coflict of interest ?
 

Does anyone see where there might be a possible conflict of intrest for a athletic director at a D1 school officiating D1 athletics ? Personally, I do - even if it is outside his own conference. I think that Rick is a quality official, but I am not sure this is a prudent for the NCAA to allow this.

OK. If you're going to do that, let's take out everyone who has a job affiliated with a D-1 program. That takes out guys like Ed Hightower, Randy Heimerman, Gerald Boudreaux.

Now let's take out everyone who is an official who played D-1 in college. That takes out countless guys like Steve Welmer.

Where do you want it to end?

This is like saying a professor at Harvard can't go and give a speech on new technology at Stanford because it might make Stanford students smarter, thus giving them better jobs and taking away prospective alumni monies to Harvard down the line.

I have members of my family that attended a couple of Big Ten schools. Should I not be allowed to work D1 ball ever because I have family members that attended those schools? I attended a school that is a D1 program and one of my parents is a teacher at that university still. Should I not be allowed to work D1 games in any conference because of that? If that is the case I cannot work the Big Ten, Mid-Con, MEAC, ACC and Atlantic 10. I was also born in Ann Arbor and had a parent attend Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida A&M. There are over 300 D1 school, there are a lot of possibilities for conflict if working at a school, attending a school or having family members is going to be considered a conflict all the time.

Peace

Re: Hartzell - coflict of interest ?
 

This is stretching the whole conflict of interest thing a bit too far. Should Rick not work games involving his school or in his conference? Sure.

But where do many officials seem to come from? Education.

My HS football crew has a teacher on it. We won't work varsity games involving his school, obviously. That's as far as it goes. Any more would make my head hurt.

No, not b/c you had family members there. . . :D

Why, because I am too tall? ;)

Peace

No, because your sig line is too long. ;)

I have been told that before. :D

Peace

This whole conflict of interest is amazing to me. When I was doing a lot of Frosh/JV games at my hometown high school, I never once saw something on the court and thought about whether I should call that foul/violation on Jimmy because I might see his Dad at work.

You see something, decide whether an advantage was gained and go from there.

I know the Hartzell thing is a little different, but really is it? We are just refereeing a basketball game and whoever is playing, I could care less who wins.

My $.02

thanks for the responses. The closest I ever came to favoring a team was in a junior high game, the score was 73-0 and I was calling fouls so the trailing team could get a chance to score a point. It ended 84-1. Mission accomplished!

And now for something completely different.

Obviously, I must be the only official to officiate a D1 game and call all five fouls on his girl friend who was playing in the game.

MTD, Sr.

Does your wife know. :)

At least it wasn't a high school game! :D

EX- Girlfriend?

I'dve done it, too. That way she'd be rested after the game!

By SEAN KEELER
REGISTER SPORTS COLUMNIST
March 6, 2005

S t. Louis, Mo. - A little nugget for the Hoosier conspiracy theorists out there: Rick Hartzell worked the Indiana-Michigan State game, too. And the Indiana-Purdue game before that.

Hoosiers 78, Spartans 74.

Hoosiers 79, Boilermakers 62.

Hmm. So much for ESPN analyst Doug Gottlieb's latest hunch from out in left field, that Hartzell, Northern Iowa's athletic director by day and Big Ten basketball official by night, was somehow trying to yank Indiana off the NCAA Tournament bubble.

Hmm. A major Hoosier upset. A major Hoosier rout. Hartzell must have fallen asleep at the wheel.

Or maybe he was just doing his job.

"I guess I got it right on those days," he sighed. Hartzell was in Memphis Saturday afternoon, on his way to officiate the Tigers' basketball game against Cincinnati, which tipped off 25 minutes after his Panthers met Southwest Missouri State in the quarterfinals of the Missouri Valley Tournament.

"There's an old saying: 'The trouble with officials is they don't care which side wins.' That's the way it is with me. I'm just calling plays. That's it. Honest to God , that's it."

Hartzell has been a college basketball official in the Midwest for more than 20 years, working 17 NCAA Tournaments and at least 10 regional championships. He's extremely careful not to let his worlds overlap. One winter, when assigned a game between Creighton and Hawaii, he called Bluejays coach Dana Altman in advance to make sure it was OK. (Altman said yes.)

While he avoids the Valley, Hartzell is in the regular officials' rotation for the Big Ten, Big 12 and Conference USA, meaning he might have to make a call somewhere that might indirectly affect Iowa, Iowa State, Drake - or Northern Iowa.

Last Tuesday was one of those nights. Hartzell was working the Indiana-Wisconsin game in Madison, a game televised by ESPN. Late in the second half, the Hoosiers trailed by one when Badgers forward Mike Wilkinson appeared to foul an Indiana player. Hartzell was in position to make a call. He didn't. The Hoosiers wound up losing, 62-60, in a game that would have sweetened their NCAA Tournament dossier.

Two nights later, Hartzell was called out on national television. During halftime of ESPN2's Illinois-Purdue game, Gottlieb blasted Hartzell and the Big Ten for putting him in position to influence the fate of one of the Panthers' bubble brethren.

"I'm not saying there is a clear conflict of interest," Gottlieb said in transcripts released by the Big Ten, "but there is at least that appearance."

Gottlieb makes a fair point. I get at least three letters every year asking why Hartzell is on the floor for games that might affect his school or others in the state.

Some question, and rightly, how Hartzell can properly assess his winter sports programs when he's on the road all week. (He scheduled the Memphis-Cincinnati game a few weeks ago, figuring that the Panthers would be the third seed and play in the last night game Saturday.)

Badgers coach Bo Ryan was wrong to chide Gottlieb, the one-time Oklahoma State point guard, for ripping Wisconsin center Brian Butch earlier this year. It's Gottlieb's job. Observe. Adjudicate.

But the guy's clutching at straws here.

For one, it's more than a little two-faced to see a man who stole credit cards as a freshman at Notre Dame - a scandal that forced Gottlieb's transfer to Oklahoma State - pointing a finger at another individual's moral integrity.

For another, Hartzell says he was assigned to the Indiana-Wisconsin game during the first week in February, when the Hoosiers (and Panthers, for that matter) were a far cry from the NCAA's slippery fence.

League officials have quickly rallied to Hartzell's defense. The Big Ten released a statement late Friday afternoon condemning Gottlieb.

"It's absurd," Valley commissioner Doug Elgin sniffed. "Just because his basketball program (at Northern Iowa) has turned around, I don't think it's fair to draw that kind of conclusion."

Given a night or two of reflection, Gottlieb agreed. The analyst called Hartzell Friday to apologize.

"I think he wishes it didn't come out like it did," Hartzell said. "I think it takes a pretty stand-up guy to call you and that's what he did. We parted with no problems. I think it's old news."

So are the Panthers. Apparently, someone forgot to let Deke Thompson in on the conspiracy: The Southwest Missouri guard nailed a trey with 49 seconds left, a rainbow with one tick left on the shot clock, to key a 70-62 Bears victory.

"If we win a couple, we're in," Hartzell had said before the tip. "Win one, we'll be on the bubble. If we don't win any, we're out."

They're out. And here's another nugget: From 244 miles away, there wasn't a darn thing Hartzell could do about it.

Most of the time TV commentators do not have the first clue as to what they are talking about. But, that is what they get paid to do, talk. Whether it makes complete sense or it is complete nonsense.

I know Hartzell, and I cannot imagine that Hartzell was out there or is out there right now purposely trying to put the "yank" on people from making the NCAA tournament.

Hartzell is NOT that kind of individual, or that kind of an official. His officiating resume speaks for itself, along with the resume's of the other Big Ten, Big 12, and Conference USA officials that he works with throughout the whole year.

I am sorry, but I cannot and will not believe that Hartzell is out there doing his job incorrectly. He is a good person and a GREAT official.

Outside the Lines
 

Anyone see the ESPN Outside the Lines Episode last night that was about this siutation? I thought it was tastefully done--about as well as ESPN could do without attacking one of its own analysts. Also, I was glad that someone from the NCAA (the director of men's officials, although his name escapes me) was on as one of the panelists and finally gave an official's point of view on this thing. Kudos to this story..at least IMO. Thoughts anyone?

I did not see Outside The Lines last night, but at least ESPN is stepping up and trying to make a wrong a right, and that Hank Nicholls from the NCAA (mens' coordinator of officials) was also asked to be on there as well.

I did see the Outside the Lines program last night. Hank Nichols was great. Especially when he talked about his personal relationships with schools and how that influenced the games he worked.

Peace