Pac-12 Officiating

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

Where did I say an official from Virginia going to the PAC 12? I said if an official from South Carolina or Virginia can work a regular Big XII schedule, then I can see an official from Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas/Iowa/Nebraska working in the PAC 12.

I live in Virginia, I grew up in California. Give me a little more credit on knowing my geography.

Still not the same. The Big12 has enough overlap with areas of high population density that it still works. The flight connections and alternative D1 leagues are still there. Those Big12 officials are more likely to be working Big10 or SEC than they would come out to Oregon or Washington.

[JRutledge]

I was at a camp where travel was addressed and it is tough for those to be that far away from home with kids and job and other obligations. If it is a struggle already for officials on that level, it is going really hard when you are going away and likely working less games to make that one trip. At least if someone goes to Kansas or Texas, they can work a couple of other games close by and make more money. And whether we like it or not, a lot of this is money related. Of course someone like me that has never worked a D1 game in my life would go out west in a second even if that was my only game for that week. But for a guy you see on TV 4 nights out of the week, that might be a little much. And I live in Chicago where I can catch a single plane to just about anywhere in the world because O'Hare Airport is a hub of the country. I am sure that is not the case in smaller areas or even in other parts of the state I live where to get to O'Hare might take you well over an hour to fly in that direction.

I just think the people out west need to develop their officials better and work with those in the smaller conferences more as it seems is the case or the expectations at least here in this part of the country. But then again this gripe is from coaches, so I think we need to consider that fact too.

Peace

[Raymond]

So based on the responses in the this thread, I believe everyone here has proven the PAC 12 coaches' point: The PAC 12 doesn't have access to the same quantity of quality officials that the other 5 Big Boy conferences have.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

So based on the responses in the this thread, I believe everyone here has proven the PAC 12 coaches' point: The PAC 12 doesn't have access to the same quantity of quality officials that the other 5 Big Boy conferences have.

Never disputed that part of the issue. I just think the remedy is not realistic.

Peace

[rockyroad]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

So based on the responses in the this thread, I believe everyone here has proven the PAC 12 coaches' point: The PAC 12 doesn't have access to the same quantity of quality officials that the other 5 Big Boy conferences have.

Nope...you have just fallen into the same trap as the whiny coaches out here. There are plenty of high quality officials available in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, etc., etc...we don't need guys to travel from the east to rescue us out here.

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by rockyroad

Nope...you have just fallen into the same trap as the whiny coaches out here. There are plenty of high quality officials available in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, etc., etc...we don't need guys to travel from the east to rescue us out here.

When you have 5 conferences (Big East/Big Ten/SEC/ACC/Big XII) that have access to officials, and can share those same officials, from the Rocky Mountains to the Altantic Ocean and another conference that only has access to officials from the Pacific Ocean to the Rockies (to include 3 large states with very little population:Idaho/Montana/Wyoming), how do you figure the officiating pool is equal?

[rockyroad]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

When you have 5 conferences (Big East/Big Ten/SEC/ACC/Big XII) that have access to officials, and can share those same officials, from the Rocky Mountains to the Altantic Ocean and another conference that only has access to officials from the Pacific Ocean to the Rockies (to include 3 large states with very little population:Idaho/Montana/Wyoming), how do you figure the officiating pool is equal?

Didn't say it was equal...said there are plenty of good officials out here who - if they chose to move east - would be working all those same tv games tomorrow.

[JetMetFan]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

So based on the responses in the this thread, I believe everyone here has proven the PAC 12 coaches' point: The PAC 12 doesn't have access to the same quantity of quality officials that the other 5 Big Boy conferences have.

Possibly, but it may also come down to instruction. Then again, I don't get to watch enough Pac 12 ball to really make a judgment on the quality.

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

Sure it is. There just are not very many schools very close out west. Even though there are a few very big cities, there are only a few. Everything is spread out. Instead of a 1-2 hour flights or even a drive, you've got 3-5 hour flights to get to/from your next location. Or, you don't even have a major airport close to the school and you've got a flight and a drive or a flight and some puddle hopper connector.

In the East it isn't even a matter of flying. In the pre-major expansion version of the Big East you could hit every school using Amtrak if you wanted to. Pitt and Syracuse were the only places where officials really needed to fly. Every other school was along the Northeast Corridor. The smaller D-1s (Ivy, Northeast, MAAC) fall into that category now.

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by JetMetFan

Possibly, but it may also come down to instruction. Then again, I don't get to watch enough Pac 12 ball to really make a judgment on the quality.

I'm not talking about the quality of what we see on TV. I'm talking about access to a pool of officials. The farther you go east, the denser the population, the more basketball there is, and the more basketball officials there are.

I'm not making a judgment one way or another about the product the PAC 12 is getting. Those PAC 12 coaches are no different than any of the coaches anywhere else in the country. They like seeing "TV" faces working their games. An ACC coach can turn on his TV at night an see officials from his last game working big games in the Big XII or Big East or SEC or Big 10.

[JRutledge]

I can speak to this fact too. NAIA, JUCO, D2 or D3 coaches love to see guys that worked on TV or that work D1 at their games. One more pressure for those working to stay closer to home when you have a full time job and a family.

Peace

[johnny d]

Have to agree with BNR on this one. If you are going to limit your pool of officials by geography, then there is no way you can claim you are getting the best officials for your games. Especially when you figure population and number of officials in each geographical area into the equation, statistics would indicate you are losing out on more top officials than you have access to. Doesnt mean there isnt quality officials out west or that they are in need of any rescuing, but it is foolish to think the pac12 is getting the best officials in the country on their games when they are not using many officials from the majority of the country.

I also dont buy the travel excuse when it comes to the top officials. As was already stated, those guys are on the road 25+ days a month already. Would it be inconvenient for them to go to the west coast, probably a little. But lets not pretend that they couldnt pick up games in some of the mid-major conferences while they are there. These guys can get games from a mid-major assignor on any night they want with just a phone call. They wouldnt have any problem scheduling a series of games out west all in a week that would allow them to take one big trip and couple it with numerous smaller trips.