There’s no argument from me that what wufpup has outlined makes all the sense in the world, perhaps too much for some people… but therein lies one of fundamental reasons that we probably won’t see any meaningful change.
This makes sense, sounds the same but not the same as ‘cents’ as in ‘dollars’ and ‘cents’… Economically speaking…there’s no visible incentive for anybody to do anything, so the ‘problem’ does not exist, at least not in their minds. Without economic incentives to change, we are left to use ‘moral’ persuasion and a political process with institutions who clearly have no ‘morality’.
So if we must consider the ‘politics’ alone … consider this…
Collegiate Sports are historically parochial in nature, especially at the conference level. And success with this plan hinges on two things…. Conferences giving up ‘power and control’ and the NCAA taking ‘power and control’.
In general, the Conferences don’t want to give and the NCAA doesn’t want to take. Mens basketball is about ten years or more behind the curve ( led by football ) so that doesn’t help the cause either, since football is leading the trend in the opposite direction… that is… the NCAA ceding power / control to the conferences, not the other way round.
Before the marathon campaign is started, we probably shouldn’t forget … we’ve been ‘arguing’ about ‘States Rights’ and ‘Federalization’ in this country since 1776. I can hear Swoffy, Delaney, et.al. now… “If we give the NCAA one thing, it will just encourage them to ask for some thing else, and some thing else and some thing else and pretty soon … they won’t need us anymore and we’ll be out of a job…” … which is the same old justification we heard for a hundred other ‘lost causes’.
Then, as we all know, there’s a whole other crowd of folks who don’t want the NCAA to do anything but go out of business.
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On the other side of the ball, so to speak, there’s the referees themselves. I’ve had the occasion to met and get to know several guys who officiated college sports most of their lives although none of their names would anybody recognize.
And that’s because that’s who they are… Guys you wouldn’t recognize with real day jobs, who love the sport and do the job not for the money or prestige but just because they love the sport.
They all say the make some good calls and some bad calls, and I never met one who didn’t have games/coaches/schools that he liked to work and some that they didn’t. Privately, they’ll tell you in a minute… I gotta go down to xxxx (school) and work a game and their coach is a xxxxxx, so it ain’t going to be fun or pretty.
So if it were possible to organize and ‘structure’ all this… I just wonder what happens to the regular guys who do the hard work. And if they are ‘replaced’ by ‘professionals’ then what does that really mean.
At the end of the day, it’s a conundrum of sorts (to use a big word that means “f’d up mess” )…
…Amateur referees officiating semi-pro athletes…. both under contract to powerful, economic-based institutions who have no morality and who, politically, are polar opposites.
Good luck with that… You GOTT my number… Call me if you need me…
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Personally, I would be happier and Coach would too… if Dr.Debbie would just take care of business and “pay our refs” a little more… and be a little more forceful with the Conference about not sending some guys to our gym… just like in the old days…
I mean, you something like, turning the hot water off in the showers the next time Jamie Luckie has to work the PNC… or towing his car during the game or something funny…
And fwiw… after that football game over in Chapel Hill the other Saturday… you know… the one where we kicked Carolina’s A$$ up and down the field all afternoon… you know… the game that was SO BAD, there was NO WHINING from the HOLES afterwards about officiating or anything else.. yeah that game… the one ALL THE HOLES went silent on…
I’m starting to think Ron Cherry is a really funny dude…
