I'm going to throw this out there, I could be wrong with my premise.

If you paid guys at the Division I level $1 million dollars a game and limited them to 2 nights a week would the officiating be discernibly that much better?

I'm not so sure it would be. Why?

1) They still would be human.
2) As everyone here knows, its freakin hard game to officiate.

Other than perhaps some of the guys in the NBA, are there people out there is the world that could do much better and the (lack of) money being paid is what is deterring them?

While the general viewpoint on this forum is talking head is a talking head, the bottom line is the TV audience cares significantly more who's wearing the headsets than the stripes. Since announcers help make money more directly for CBS than an official ever will, the market will create a better payday for the announcers.

Nothing will ever change until the BCS conferences are willing to give up some control over what happens during their regular season. As long as they control their scheduling of all kinds, there will always be certain officials working the big games and will affect who works the NCAA Tournament.

The big conferences would rather have the big names working than even the less experienced guys at that level because they feel every game will affect their season resume to make the tournament.

Peace