Luxuriating in high-quality tournament basketball, there is much for the college basketball fan to be sanguine about these days of late March.  There is, however, one governor to the optimism. It is the continued dread of more displays of incompetence from the NCAA’s long-toothed, physically infirm, grossly overextended officiating corps.

Beyond A Reasonable Doubt

Surely the intrinsic imperfection of a three-man officiating crew is understood, even well tolerated in these precincts. But as anyone who has watched more than a few live basketball games in the last decade is aware, the issue isn’t the reasonable and natural fallibility of human beings trying to proctor a game that often proceeds at light speed. The problem is an NCAA-wide system of poor oversight that is giving us officials who are overworked into incompetence, and in more than a few individual cases, are physically unbecoming of the job.

Free Roaming Zebras

One layer of the problem is that today’s officials are independent contractors who are beholden not to individual conferences but are free to work in multiple leagues and as often as they see fit. The result is referees who are exceeding their natural capacities in pursuit of more money.

In a diatribe the spirit of which won him more than a few public reprimands by the Big 12 commissioner last season, Bob Knight got to the shank of the matter:

“To have some guy 54 or 55 years old referee six times a week is a real disservice to the kids who are playing. But these guys are so greedy, they end up trying to work these six games a week. And they’re not capable of doing that. Check schedules and you’ll rarely see where kids play three games a week. These kids are 19, 20 and 21 years old.”

Experienced Or Over The Hill?

With the average age of the officiating corps increasing and scant evidence of an infusion of young referees, the number of referees who are working more when their physical capabilities recommend the opposite is hurting the game. Viscerally obvious to Hoopraker from our perch on Big Ten sidelines is that there too many veteran referees still in heavy circulation despite suffering the kind of physical declines that make a solid acquittal of their jobs impossible.

And we’re not just talking about gray hair, pattern balding, and modestly expanding wastelines. There are refs who, due to injury, poor fitness, or age are simply unable to keep pace with a game made more challenging to call by its ever increasing velocity and degree of athleticism.

While we are not privy to the NCAA’s or the conferences’ management of officials, it does appear that many veteran refs are being protected by a cronyish, tenure type retention system that demands little in the way of performance or fitness standards. And while long, loyal service to the game renders many excellent veteran refs who are still fit enough to perform admirably, there are plenty who need to face the music and gracefully take their place on the scorekeeper’s table or bleachers.

A Challenge For The NCAA

One potential remedy is for the Big Ten and other conferences to allocate some of their bulging revenue streams for recruitment, training, and the creation of a renumeration structure that motivates a stable corps of referees that work exclusively for the conference. Also imperative is that the conferences provide a more muscular management style that ensures a higher level, more consistent quality of officiating. As Knight points out:

“You say, ‘All right, if you’re going to work in this league, this is how you’re going to work. And if you don’t want to work in this league, fine, you’ve got other leagues to work in. They have plenty of other places they can go. They can go to the NBA, they can go to the NAIA, they can go to junior college, they can go to high school.”

NCAA officiating is a part-time, seasonal endeavor and those who want the biggest bucks and a career of it can vie for NBA placement. The remainder need to understand that the system as it stands today is not working except as a mechanism for their own greed. In exchange for a bump in their nightly compensation, they can work a bit less and within a single conference, but for the ultimate benefit of the game they love.

Zebra Breeding Grounds

As a pertinent aside, Hoopraker’s years of Illinois high school basketball observation, while anecdotal, has revealed the kind of officiating that the NCAA would be wise to study and recruit. Unlike too many of their NCAA counterparts these high school practitioners generally maintain the kind of quiet, nearly invisible control of the game that should be the rule on all levels of play.

And it isn’t as if they are performing in environments devoid of pressure. The gyms they are working are more often than not crucibles of passionate, knowledgeable fans packed close to the floor. Some of the Division I home courts should be so charged. And the athleticism and speed of the game is far from pedestrian.

The Time For Reform Is Nigh

When the quality of officiating has eroded to a degree that goes beyond the archetypal harping of hard-to-please basketball fans, a change is needed. When the mere arrival of certain zebra crews onto the floor during pregame brings groans and derision from fans and almost guarantees a game that will be noticeably compromised, it’s time for reform. Respect for elders is one thing. A senior welfare program that is hurting the game is another.

Posted by DJ Elsass on Sunday, November 18th, 2007 at 8:23 pm.