conflict of interest?

[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.