We were not talking about a state tourney game. Those are chosen by the commissioner and any association with the schools (went there, wife works there, in your region, in a region you used to be in) you are not on that game. Harder to do when you deal with people in a region. But I agree that the official can use good judgement and ask for a switch.

We had one in our state tourney this year. One of the guys used to work in one of the regions that had a game saturday. He was one of the best (if not THE best) official at the tourney. He sat out the Semis and finals!

I have a problem with people who attack me simply because I disagree with them. You were acting like a prick in this thread, long before I acknowledged it.

BTW, you should re-read my reply as I edited and gave you some helpful spelling and grammer tips.

Thank you, Jim. Some people are way out in left field on this one.

Do you remember what happen about 2 seasons ago to Rick Hartzell? Rick Hartzell is a D1 official who happens to be the Athletic Director of Northern Iowa. Hartzell works in the Big Ten and was working a Wisconsin-Indiana game. Well the school he worked at was on the bubble late in the season as well as Indiana. He made a call against Indiana that was critical in the game and Indiana eventually lost. Hartzell was accused by an ESPN commentator of not making a critical call for Indiana, because Hartzell's school would benefit from the lost of a team in another conference, in an unrelated situation all because he happens to be the AD of this other school. Now this story was a national story and the ESPN Commentator even apologized for most of his statements.

The point if they want to find bias, they will find an appearance of bias just about anywhere. I can tell you as an African-American, suburban official, the issues of bias come up all the time where I live. If I work a game between an all-Black team verses a largely white school that is from the suburbs, you should hear the comments from the stands that suggest that myself or my partners (who can be white) have something against one of the teams based on something that may or may not be a factor. Being an alum of a school is not the only bias out there or the only bias someone can make an issue out of. As a matter of fact where I live what school you attended is almost never as much of an issue as the bias people have accused of based on race and city vs. suburban issue. Or even city public school vs. city Catholic school.

Peace

If I took myself off of every game where someone might think I was bias, I might not ever ref. I ref my alma mater occaisionally. I see some of our coaches at the golf course. I've even golfed with a few of them in the yearly ref golf tournament. One former coach was my high school algebra teacher. I ref at the HS in the town where I live. I will be reffing at the Community College where I attended this year. Where would it end?

I once had a coach accuse me of favoritism because he knew that my wife worked in the town where I was reffing.

Oops. <font> </font>

Well....this might be kinda appropriate:
http://www.stopstart.btinternet.co.uk/nc/Crayon.gif

Wonder if Tiny is gonna call me a "prick" too now.....:D

As one can see by this entire thread, it is all a matter of ones opinion. I acted ill mannered due to the fact that you were offended by my comments. I was neither a **** nor offensive in my opinion, until you decided to comment on something that I perceived to be offensive to me.

In closing, calling me a **** does little to me. I KNOW I am a *** at times...we all are including the person that you look at in the mirror in the morning.

One is allowed two typing errors per document and still make an "A" in typing class! You flunked!

:p

....due South