Refs .. interesting stories..

[mu_hilltopper]

Two very interesting stories on FoxSports about NCAA refs..

First is one about how they're chosen for the NCAA Tourney ..
   
- Conferences provide lists of their officials, ranked in order of performance, to the NCAA's basketball committee.
http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/6494898

.. I'm glad to see they are evaluated for performance .. but if that's so, does that mean bottom dwellers get booted?  Hmm.

The other article is about refs, and how much they work .. often every day for a month before having a day off.  They get paid $1600-2600 per game.  WOW.  That's a lot of coin.  No wonder they want to work 30 days straight .. $60k per month payoff, for working, what, 3 hours per day?  Sure, it's hectic for 4-5 months, but $250-300k is pretty good compensation. 

It also brings up the comparison to the NBA, who have full time refs who max out at 14 games/month. .. and how the NCAA conferences have thought about hiring refs full time instead of going the independent contractor route .. how the refs would demand, well, lots of bucks to do it.  Not sure why they (the Conferences) wouldn't do it, as they're *already* paying ~$2k/game/ref. 

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/6495276

Both articles are a good read.