and one official resigned, possibly others to come. For those who follow NCAA officiating, you may find this article interesting. From the Knoxville (TN) News-Sentinel:

Guthrie says SEC terminated him
Coordinator of officials replaced by Boudreaux

By JOHN ADAMS, [email protected]
December 15, 2005


John Guthrie, the SEC's coordinator of basketball officials, has been replaced by long-time conference official Gerald Boudreaux, SEC commissioner Mike Slive announced Wednesday. Boudreaux will serve on an interim basis until a full-time coordinator of officials is hired.
The two-paragraph press release gave no reason for the change.

"I was terminated," Guthrie said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "I was asked to resign but I did not. You can quote me on that."

Slive said Wednesday evening, "This is a personnel matter that the conference will have no further comment on."

Guthrie's termination came a day after the announced resignation of SEC basketball official Travis Correll of Atlanta. Last week, Correll was listed in a civil action filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The suit alleges Correll and others operated a fraudulent investment scheme, which has raised more than $36 million since July 2004.

Guthrie said his termination had nothing to do with the investigation of Correll. "It's an entirely different matter," he said.

He said he didn't want to comment further on the reason for his termination but might do so later. Guthrie, who has worked from his home in Atlanta, said he had been the coordinator of conference officials since 1981.

A News Sentinel source said at least two other SEC basketball officials have been employed by Correll's Atlanta-based company, Horizon Establishment, and that other officials had invested in the company.

The News Sentinel contacted one of the officials who reportedly had been employed by the company. He said he would defer all questions to his attorney but would not give the name of his attorney.

Both Slive and Guthrie said Tuesday they were unaware of other officials being involved with Horizon Establishment. Correll did not return calls to the News Sentinel.

The Federal Securities and Exchange Commission alleges that Correll and other defendants in the suit promised investors four to 12 percent monthly returns in a bank deposit program without risk to their investment principal. According to the commission, the bank deposit program does not exist; investment returns were derived from the proceeds of other investors.

Copyright 2005, Knoxville News-Sentinel Co.

Oh my.

Travis worked in Chattanooga last night, must have been his last game.

Tomegun started a thread about this the other day, but it disappeared. I can only say that I'm sorry that Coach Guthrie has been lumped in with this other investigation. If his termination really has nothing to do with the securities thing, then it's a disservice to him to lump his story in with the fraud story.

I've met him and am sorry that his tenure ends this way. I'd like to hear the full story, b/c I can't imagine what would cause him to be fired in mid-season.

Agreed, it would be entirely irresponsible to connect this without sufficient evidence, but hey, I've seen worse form the esteemed news media.

By the way, today they are also stating that the SEC will no longer assign games to Jason McNeil as well.

Jason probably isn't the only one that will be "let go." I would say, it probably isn't a coincidence that these two situations are in the same story and happened at the same time. There are other things involved making it obvious they are linked.

I deleted the thread because it seemed like the general response was "so?" Actually, I could understand this response so I got rid of it. BUT, this could have a domino effect for change all the way across the country so it could have an impact on many people with D1 aspirations.

That's too bad, too. I met Jason at camp and he seemed like a pretty good guy. I hope Coach wasn't involved in the fraud thing. :(

Tommy,

I think a lot of us are still trying to figure out how this situation is going to affect officials that are trying to advance to that level, other than officials that live in the area of the SEC. I know I do not live in the SEC area and this would not likely affect me or any other officials in my area. Unless you were on some short list to be the next set of SEC officials, I do not see how one conference firing their coordinator of officials is going to affect everyone else.

Peace

My guess is that a lot of assignors will want the SEC job. Depending on who eventually gets it, it may lead to several other conferences changing their assignors as well.

Kind of like a couple years ago when Roy Williams left Kansas to take the UNC head coaching job. How many coaching changes resulted b/c of that one move? I don't know, I'm just using it as an example. But maybe if enough supervisors change conferences, it could affect guys in several areas who are hoping to move up to those staffs. Just my guess.

Since this is an SEC thread. . . Anybody notice one of the officials in last night's UK/Louisville game was reporting with two hands? Also gave the "punch" for a player control foul.

Jimmy Burr was on the game, I'm pretty sure. But he wasn't the one using the two hands (that I saw, anyway).

It was the tall guy with dark hair that whacked Pitino.

That is no different than any other opening. Around here there are a few changes with coordinators and losing conferences. I guess when he said it would change officiating as we know it (or something to that affect). I was curious how this change was going to affect all of us. I understand that this is a big conference, but when the ACC got rid of their official's coordinator, they hired a current official for the job. I did not see anything that changed drastically by that move. At least no big change in this part of the country was felt. Oh well, I digress.

Peace

Perhaps that's because you don't see a lot of ACC games. The staff has changed quite a bit.

I think Tomegun was saying that if this fraud thing plus the firing of the supervisor results in a huge turnover in the SEC, other conferences will definitely be affected. Officials changing primary conference affiliation, a new supervisor bringing in offiicals he's previously worked with, etc.

BTW, there will also be a new football supervisor of officials in the SEC. The SEC is widely regarded as the weakest football officiating conference in the country. The ACC ended their officiating affiliation with the SEC in basketball two years ago.

Tony,

To what extent were the basketball conferences affiliated? And, how did it change? And, why?

Mulk

That all might be true Tony, but in the area I live what the SEC does is not really going to change what happens with the Big Ten or what the mid-major basketball conferences do. If you only work in the SEC or the lower level conferences that feed into the SEC, you will be affected. Now that is just my opinion.

Peace