Our sports section carried the official news that the coach and some
players will be suspended for one tournament game.
 
I'm torn on this one....
 
Part of me says, "right or wrong, the referee is still the referee"
 
Another part of me says the officials for the final championship games
should have some degree of qualifications that the specific official
in question did not have.
 
My understanding is he was rated by his conference as the third best of the
three officials his conference sent to officiate.  There is no reason
for using any official other than the "best" in the championship
game.
 
To my way of thinking, there are three categories of officials,
A) the consistant
B) the inconsistant
C) the unconscious
 
Those in categories B and C should be unacceptable.  However, there
are areas in the first category:
 
A) consistantly calls the game tight/close
B) consistantly lets them play
C) consistantly starts out loose but tightens up as the
   sticks/elbows start to get up and there are conventions and shoving
   matches after the whistles
D) consistantly calls some infractions tight and other infractions
   loose
 
While I may have personal disagreement with styles A B and C above, I
don't feel officials are being unfair.  I think style A favors a
finesse type team while style B favors a physical type team.  My
personal bias is towards the finesse style teams, so I tend to
appreciate type A officials.  I also think the players and coaches
know who calls loose and who calls close.
 
I have a real difficulty with type D officiating because it is
patently unfair.
 
I've seen Tim McConaghy wear red armbands at 3 games (2 live and one
on tape) and I believe him to be a patently bad and unfair official
because he calls some infractions tight and other infractions loose.
 
I've in the past made comments about officials having bad days, and
that I didn't like their style, but this is a first for me.
 
charlie shub  [log in to unmask]      -or-        (719) 593-3492
  or even  cdash@colospgs (BITNET)  if the above address won't work