www.news-bulletin.com/sports/77458-01-30-08.html -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 1/30/2008
Last Visited: 1/31/2008
New Mexico Activities Association basketball officials make somewhere in the neighborhood of $55 per game according to Belen Schools athletic coordinator Jim Danner.No matter how much an official loves the sport, that's not much currency when you consider the difficulty of their decisions and the verbal incendiaries thrown their way.
By contrast, many college officials are on the other end of the income scale.Danner, who was a Division I NCAA official himself for more than 25 years, said a D-I ref can pull in between $600 and $900 per game.When considering each team has close to 30 games on its schedule each year, it sounds like we should all quit what we're doing and put on college ref jerseys.
Not so fast.The training is expensive and lengthy, Danner says, and even after attending a camp, it may take years to actually get work once trained.In such a lucrative business, it's not surprising to think there may be veteran officials not eager to walk away, hanging on as long as they can still do the job.
College officials are pulled from the top high school referees, meaning you can't usually jump over high school to get to college officiating.Danner said the speed is "unreal" at the college level, and that's compared to high school, which doesn't exactly happen at molasses rate itself.
Then, according to Danner, it takes about three to five years to really catch up to the speed of the college game.I imagine it also takes a while to learn to make quick decisions at the high school level, with out-of-bounds possession calls, fouls and traveling being just a few of the toughest calls.
Danner said advantage is one of the toughest issues to address, as in, sure, there was contact on a play, but did either player gain an advantage from it?