The March to 'Madness'

[JugglingReferee]

Referee NON-Subscriber's Free Sample

By John W. Adams

The NCAA coordinator of men’s basketball officiating takes you behind the scenes of the tournament.

[Nevadaref]

Thanks for posting!
Very nice article and a detailed overview of the NCAA process.

Adams took one stance which I don't agree with, but I can see the argument in its favor. That point being that he wanted officials from the "Big Six" conferences for the Regionals and beyond due to their familiarity with big-time environments and crowds.

I'm not convinced that living in a certain area or working for a larger or smaller conference makes one a more or less capable official for the later rounds of the NCAA tourney. For example, the Horizon League is not listed as one of the "Big Six," yet seems silly to discount the officials who worked in that league all year. Obviously that conference played some great basketball as evidenced by Bulter making the National Championship Game.

[JRutledge]

They officials that would work the lower conferences are often working the bigger ones too. Even if you look at the Championship games of many Conference Tournaments, those are big time officials work them. It is not like the individuals he is talking about are not already there. At least that is the case for the most part.

Peace

[grunewar]

Very interesting article. Thanks for posting.

Aside from living in/near a city/town, having attended that school or had a child do so, can someone elaborate more on the oft mentioned, "check for conflicts of interest" portion of the selection process?

[SCalScoreKeeper]

Here's an example from the John Feinstein book Last Dance:
In the chapter regarding officials he mentions Duke Edsall-His brother is UCONN football coach Randy Edsall.