conflict of interest?

[Mike L]

Originally Posted by MNBlue

Kind of like the same thing you did when you didn't read enough of the link to discover that Paolo Boivth author is a woman.

or even got to this part of the article, about half way down.


"Frankly, I believe most Pac-10 officials are making on-field calls based on fact, not emotions. They are trained, hard-working and have the game's best interests at heart.
However . . .
The conference can't ignore perception, and putting an official at a game involving a school he attended is setting everyone up for failure.
Look at Fogltance. He might have done nothing wrong but his allegiances have caused this firestorm.
The truth is, officials make errors. Everybody makes errors. Don't put them in a position to have those mistakes blamed on bias."

Slander? Really?

[bkdow]

I've done this twice. One time while refereeing Soccer, I officiated a game for my now-defunct alma mater. I had to call a penalty shot with time expired in a tie ball game. I hold that it was clearly the correct call, but I was totally shreded the next day in the local newspaper. I vowed that I would never do it again.

My first varsity football game was hosted by the school that my son was a freshman. I was the umpire and didn't do anything to impact the 51-7 outcome but afterwards realized that I probably should not have allowed myself in that position.

I have been officiating sports since I was 12 (now 41) and believe that I can be completely objective without regard to who the opponents are, however, as one D1 official said in our summer conference said, "do not put yourself in a position where there can be even an appearance of a conflict of interest."

I recited my vow again to never allow it to happen again. It's not whether we can do the job correctly, it's completely how the team will perceive a close call. The same reason that we do not treat one coach like an old friend and the opposing coach stoaiclly.

[JRutledge]

If you expect to only have officials that have never attended any schools in a major conference, then you will not get many qualified people to work. People attend schools in their region of the country. So unless someone lived in a completely different area, they likely had the possibility to attend one of the schools. And people that officiate are often are close to sports and either played or knew someone they are working with like the coaches. These conflict issues are mostly fan boy based and not based on reality. Heck, why not worry about if someone lives in a state and eliminate them too?

Peace

[Durham]

Seems to me that this is that officials fault for making a donation to his school and being on the donor list. I don't even use the awesome liscense plate frame my wife bought me because the last thing I want is for someone to know where I went to school. I tell the NCAA and the conferences because they ask, but I don't need to put my self out there for someone to find.