Refs

[Benny B]

The BEAST - as a basketball conference - needs to make a contract with the best refs in the country and get full time professional referees.  This will differentiate it from the crap that these old fat guys provide at present.  Cooley should be livid - not about the double dribble (it wasn't) but about the game.  Wojo should be even more animated.  Any game in which 3 guys foul out was a poorly officiated game.  I was watching Sacar closely because I like his defense.  He maybe had one foul.  For him to foul out after playing such good defense is an offense to basketball.

Too many considerations to enumerate here, but I'll give you two (that are somewhat related to each other):

1) Pay.  Before the breakup, referees made around $3,000 for a BE conference game but travel expenses were not reimbursed.  For argument's sake, let's assume averages of $350 for a plane ticket, $200 for a hotel room/transportation and $75 for meals.  The actual gross for a BE game would then be closer to $2,400.  So let's assume a BE official grosses $2,500 per game in 2017 (accounting for inflation and the fact that a referee may not need a plane ticket for every game).

With up to four BE games occurring on any given day throughout the season, you'd need at minimum four crews but more reasonably, five.  Considering that there are only 90 BE conference games (10 * 18 / 2) and 9 tournament games (2 + 4 + 2 + 1), each crew would work about 20 games/year, giving the officials a pay ceiling of $50,000.  Bearing in mind that many officials hold rather lucrative, not to mention flexible, day jobs (attorneys, business owners, accountants, etc.), even if you doubled the pay, not many of those guys are going to give up their careers for $50,000-100,000/year.  Maybe for a year or two, but not for the rest of their working years.

2) Workload.  Back in c. 2012-13, among the top 200 D-I officials, the average games worked that season was in the mid-50s, with the top ten posting numbers in the 80's (Roger Ayers had something in the mid 90's).  Think about that... the college hoops season is approx. 150 days long, and here you have your average official working a game 1 every 3 days and your top officials working almost 2 games every 3 days.

Circling back to #1, BE official pay is one of - if not - the highest in the NCAA.  Other conferences pay less, low-major conference game pay might be in the hundreds, and NCAA tournament games are only $1,200 - 1,600 (with travel expenses included).  So to get to 50-60 games, you're certainly not pulling the BE rate... but if you got all the top assignments, 60 games will likely get you a six-figure salary... not bad for five months of the year.

But if you've taken notice of D-I referees, they're not exactly recent graduates... in fact, I would estimate the average is upper 40's/early 50's, with more than a handful of guys perhaps in their 60's.  I don't care how good of shape they're in, the human body is going to struggle to repair itself in 48 hours at that age.  So your average official isn't giving 100% late in the season because their body is nowhere near 100%.  Fatigue, aches, pains, etc... all of this affects the mind, so they're not going to be the sharpest when they're running up and down a basketball court for two hours every third day (not to mention the toll that travel takes on the body).


Although it may be counter-intuitive, perhaps more assignments/pay and professional officials is the opposite direction if the goal is better officiating.  Instead, maybe conferences would be better off bringing in more officials for fewer games and instead of increasing the pay, invest more money in training/seminars/evaluations.

[BrewCity83]

When one team attacks the basket and the other team shoots jumpers, you will always have that disparity regardless of the quality of the refs.

Yeah, we all know that's how you get to the line.  But then why did Providence get 41 free throws while taking 43 2-point attempts while MU only got 16 free throws while taking 42 2-point attempts??? 

Theo went to the hole 7 times for no free throws.  Sam took 9 2-pointers and got no free throws.  Every Friar that took more than one 2-point shot went to the line.  Look at the box score....https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/2018-01-03-18-providence.html

I concede that MU actually commits too many fouls, but the game was not called evenly.

[D'Lo Brown]

Yeah, we all know that's how you get to the line.  But then why did Providence get 41 free throws while taking 43 2-point attempts while MU only got 16 free throws while taking 42 2-point attempts??? 

Theo went to the hole 7 times for no free throws.  Sam took 9 2-pointers and got no free throws.  Every Friar that took more than one 2-point shot went to the line.  Look at the box score....https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/2018-01-03-18-providence.html

I concede that MU actually commits too many fouls, but the game was not called evenly.

Do you get angry when the opponent gets called for a minor or inconsequential foul? No, the thought never crosses your mind... It's just human behavior.

The game was called atrociously, but saying that it was called with a bias towards Providence is baby talk. Seriously.

[frozena pizza]

College basketball has made a number of rule tweaks and emphasized certain things to reduce physical play and create better freedom of movement.  Part of it was when Jay Bilas constantly griping about non-calls and poor officiating a few years back.  It has made a for a lot more subjective calls and increased the influence of the referees.  More ticky tack fouls, more whistles based on anticipation and generally more delays and free throws.  Managing the foul situation has become much more critical for coaches.

Overall college basketball is less entertaining to me than it was 5 years ago due to these changes.  I find myself starting to prefer NBA games as it doesn't seem to be as acute there.  I'm hoping people will wake up and it changes back but I doubt it.

[Its DJOver]

Anyone else catch the UNC game where Teddy V wouldn't even acknowledge the existence of the UNC player after he clearly missed a call.  Terrible reffing around the country, not just MU games. 

[mileskishnish72]

I've been to a lot of BE games in a number of cities, and have formed the perception that PC gets more than its share of home cooking. I thought last night was horrendous. Yet, the PC fan next to me thought that THEY were getting screwed. The MU fan behind me bitched about Matty's foul (I think his 4th), which could have served as a learning tool for what not to do defensively and was an obvious foul. There seems to be a perception bias at play. Well, despite all that, I don't think fouls would be such an issue if we played better D.

[muwarrior69]

Too many considerations to enumerate here, but I'll give you two (that are somewhat related to each other):

1) Pay.  Before the breakup, referees made around $3,000 for a BE conference game but travel expenses were not reimbursed.  For argument's sake, let's assume averages of $350 for a plane ticket, $200 for a hotel room/transportation and $75 for meals.  The actual gross for a BE game would then be closer to $2,400.  So let's assume a BE official grosses $2,500 per game in 2017 (accounting for inflation and the fact that a referee may not need a plane ticket for every game).

With up to four BE games occurring on any given day throughout the season, you'd need at minimum four crews but more reasonably, five.  Considering that there are only 90 BE conference games (10 * 18 / 2) and 9 tournament games (2 + 4 + 2 + 1), each crew would work about 20 games/year, giving the officials a pay ceiling of $50,000.  Bearing in mind that many officials hold rather lucrative, not to mention flexible, day jobs (attorneys, business owners, accountants, etc.), even if you doubled the pay, not many of those guys are going to give up their careers for $50,000-100,000/year.  Maybe for a year or two, but not for the rest of their working years.

2) Workload.  Back in c. 2012-13, among the top 200 D-I officials, the average games worked that season was in the mid-50s, with the top ten posting numbers in the 80's (Roger Ayers had something in the mid 90's).  Think about that... the college hoops season is approx. 150 days long, and here you have your average official working a game 1 every 3 days and your top officials working almost 2 games every 3 days.

Circling back to #1, BE official pay is one of - if not - the highest in the NCAA.  Other conferences pay less, low-major conference game pay might be in the hundreds, and NCAA tournament games are only $1,200 - 1,600 (with travel expenses included).  So to get to 50-60 games, you're certainly not pulling the BE rate... but if you got all the top assignments, 60 games will likely get you a six-figure salary... not bad for five months of the year.

But if you've taken notice of D-I referees, they're not exactly recent graduates... in fact, I would estimate the average is upper 40's/early 50's, with more than a handful of guys perhaps in their 60's.  I don't care how good of shape they're in, the human body is going to struggle to repair itself in 48 hours at that age.  So your average official isn't giving 100% late in the season because their body is nowhere near 100%.  Fatigue, aches, pains, etc... all of this affects the mind, so they're not going to be the sharpest when they're running up and down a basketball court for two hours every third day (not to mention the toll that travel takes on the body).


Although it may be counter-intuitive, perhaps more assignments/pay and professional officials is the opposite direction if the goal is better officiating.  Instead, maybe conferences would be better off bringing in more officials for fewer games and instead of increasing the pay, invest more money in training/seminars/evaluations.

I'm retired. I would ref games for a 100k and MU would get a lot of home cooking on those 50/50 calls.