College referees disciplined
 

I always thought this inter web thing was going to cause problems for officials :p

Bradley Batt as in whack, get out?

ruh roh

Yes.

MTD, Sr.

These guys are the envy of so many officials who would love to work 80-100 games and enjoy the game fees and prestige that come along with the turf. I have a feeling we don't know the whole story. The only angles could be: 1. Access to coach evaluations of officials & 2. Seeing officials, their schedules and the accompanying pay they were in line for.

I dealt with a similar situation in a High School association where one of the board members got access and wanted to know who had the best assignments every week. It is nothing more than an ego, jealousy and envy play. At the D1 level there is a lot more cash at stake.

The problem with the story is that as usual, the media only focused on one of the most minor part of the infraction. Honestly, who cares what a coach might say about them. I doubt that was the issue. I bet it was more about getting access to things that were not the business of the individuals like assignments and assignor decisions.

The media really needs to talk to more people that actually officiate, not some reporter that has no idea what officiating is about.

Peace

The reporter didn't focus on the coach rating part of things, he just used it as an example. He mentioned the assignments and financial information as well. The reporter also mentioned that he spoke with an official about the situation off the record. I'm not surprised a working official wouldn't speak on the record about something like this.

He focused mostly on the coach aspect and having an axe to grind if some official had an opportunity to view that information. Not that I could look in and get someone's personal information. And I would not be surprised if there were social security numbers or other personal information that someone would not want to have random people looking at in this manner.

Peace

Problem with that thought is that at nearly every level, officials are told not to speak to the press. Finding that one guy in each organization that is allowed to speak for the group is probably not that easy (or timely), from the reporter's point of view - especially in today's 24-hour news cycle where there are no deadlines... just rushes to report things first.

I work in the media - not for ESPN - and while I agree there's a rush to report things first I don't think this story qualifies. ESPN is the only place with original reporting on this one so no one was breathing down their necks. My guess is they couldn't get many officials to talk.

The value here was the officials could check and see who was getting the big assignments in each conference. They could then compare their schedule with others both in terms of number of games and plum assignments.

You can get the historical data relating to assignments with two mouse clicks
for example:
College Basketball Referees - StatSheet.com

Right, but not future assignments. They were looking at schedules for this year and likely have been doing this for quite awhile.

Probably for a variety of reasons.

I'm guessing there's a lot more to this story than we'll ever know. How did they get access? Who did it? What did they see?

I'm good with not knowing.

Boroski is also a lower division supervisor, possible he was looking up schedules of some of his officials?

He is? What conference?

Per the article, but it didn't specify.

It wouldn't surprise me if officials assigned to a game were paid different amounts based on how in-demand they are. That would not be information people would want shared.

There is a tier system in many conferences. This is usually well known by everyone involved. Everyone knew the big time guys like Tommy O'Neil, Ed Hightower or Steve Welmer were getting the bigger checks to work a mid-major conference. I am sure some would not want this to be known, but it was not a big deal either. The fact they hacked into the system is bad enough.

Peace

One of the guys in article mentioned lawyering up!...As Independent Contractors, what could he sue for? Employees can sue for wrongful termination, we work at the behest of supervisors/assignors..right?

I am sure he could sue for defamation or some association where he was not involved. It is possible that not everyone was responsible for this incident. And if games are cost because it is said they were involved, that is a good reason to sue or to have some legal advice to proceed.

Peace

Well I can say with 100 0/0 certainty that if by some cosmic coincidence I became privy to all Arbiter accts I would never use it!

Gambling could be a concern of the conferences and NCAA if someone has unauthorized access to future assignments of officials.

I have heard from a reliable source that the officials in question have lost all of their Consortium games (Big 10, MAC, and Summit). Probably 60-70% of their schedules.

I think the major concern is the fact that if the allegations are found to be true, they basically got unauthorized access to a site(s) that they don't have permission to, so that almost basically constitutes to hacking in the site, and that has criminally federal ramifications. . .

I'm no politician, but invading someone's privacy (such as personal info like SS numbers and other things) is a scary thing.

Just my barely $.02 cents worth on it. . .

I Think That The Nigerian Prince Has It ...
 

Sorry. Somebody hacked into your account and that two cents is long gone. And now you have to pay a $35.00 overdraft fee.