Calling Foul on College Officiating

College basketball has never been better. As we head towards March there are teams jockeying for top seeds, other teams scrambling to make the tournament and players like John Wall, Wes Johnson, and Evan Turner are turning in highlight reel performances on a daily basis.

However, there is one thing that's ruining games -- officiating. It's easy to rip on officials, if they are perfect no one notices and when they blow calls it's all anyone can talk about. However, maybe it's just me, but this year there are too many games being marred by poor officiating.

Louisville has been victimized a couple of times by bad calls, Syracuse got the benefit of the doubt on a questionable call versus UConn, and tonight we had the latest example -- in overtime of the Mississippi State - Kentucky game officials called two phantom fouls on MSU v. John Wall and then missed a goal tending call that should have given MSU two critical points. While all three calls were close, all three were clearly wrong -- all three killed MSU's chances, and that's not good for the game.

So what's the cause of this? I've opined that I think some of these guys are just flat out too old. Another theory that probably has more merit is that officials are working too much. Fox senior basketball writer Jeff Goodman certainly thinks it is having an effect on games. After the refs brutally botched the Kentucky game tonight, Goodman tweeted,

"Questionable calls down the stretch, but that's the norm this time of year - refs working too many games & have huge impact on games."

He followed that up with this nugget:

"FYI - That officiating crew for tonight's KY-Miss St. game has called more than 200 games already this season combined."

Referees have an incentive to work an insane amount of games. In power conferences they can make up to $2,000 a game, plus travel expenses. While I have no proof, something tells me those travel expenses probably have as much padding as a teenage girl's bra.

So, which guys are working the most this year? According to Stat Sheet, it is the guy featured in the John Feinstein story I linked to above -David Hall. He has called 83 games already this year, in 21 different states. Here are the refs are trailing Hall in the quest to get Ryan Bingham like frequent flier miles:

College Basketball Stats


Hall is 55 years old. He has already worked more games this year than NBA teams play in a regular season. It's only mid-February. You can't tell me that after flying nearly every day to games he's fresh and ready to make calls at 11 pm as a crucial game winds down. The guy in second place Rick Hartzell has called games in 32 different states this year. Third place contestant Mike Kitts has hit 37 states. Only snow has visited more states than these guys this year. Do you mean to tell me that calling college basketball games is so difficult we need guys flying to almost every state in the union in less than 4 months to work? Give me a break.

Goodman finished up tweeting on the subject by saying this:

I am not complaining about the quality of the officials in that game; rather how overworked they make themselves.

So while he's not complaining about the quality of the officiating in that game - I am. I may be just a dumb guy writing on a dopey blog that very few people read, but I love college basketball and too many games are ending in controversy. Too many old guys are trying to earn a living flying every day to games across the country so they can expense 20 ounce beers and bad steaks at Applebees.

The officiating needs to be addressed in the off-season. Limits need to placed on the amount of games a guy can work. More referees need to be groomed and ready to work at the Division I level. And when they are ready, they need the opportunity to prove themselves. I'm sick and tired of watching great games decided by over tired old men.