Oversight is not a thing, because, again, no one cares
What do you do for work? Think about it for a second. Put yourself in your place of work, mentally, of course, unless you’re reading this while you’re there. You probably have a boss, you probably have co-workers, you probably have a system in place to assure that you do what you should. I, also, am gainfully employed and have all those things.
So, say one of us messes up at our job. You, doing your super important job, or me, doing my less important one or even this one, which is barely a job. You mess up (sorry, hypothetical you) and you mess up so badly that it costs your team money, standing, moral authority, and time. You full on screw the pooch. There’s a replay system, weirdly, in place at your work and everyone can review the replay and watch you just mess it up over and over and over and over… Not good, right?
That brings us to last night and the fever dream that is watching the increasingly incompetent Brian O’Connell daydream his way through another college basketball contest. O’Connell was joined in cocking this contest up by Roger Ayers, who is also very bad at his job, and Tim Clougherty, who might actually be decent. The three of them messed up three calls that were just demonstrably wrong: the out of bounds save, the RJ Luis over and back, and the out of bounds that wasn’t off Ryan Conwell. These three things led to six St. John’s points. None of the calls were correct. None of them are opinion or in dispute.
Unlike your job, these guys did have cameras on them to show that they had messed up. They did make mistakes that had an impact on the product their employer is trying to put out there. If that happens to you or I, we face consequences for it. Bad enough and the public will call for your job, a lawsuit, or just your general humiliation. Not that bad and it could just cost you money, days at work, or maybe your job.
Brian O’Connell is reffing again tonight. Roger Ayers had worked 64 games coming into last night, including a stretch of 31 straight days in which he officiated a game, crossing four time zones and hitting 27 different venues from Stanford all the way to Rhode Island. That’s actually insane. No one would work well under that strain, something Ayers demonstrates on the nightly.
So who is supposed to say something? Well, the Big East does not have a referee pool. Let me repeat that for every Twitter idiot who complains about Big East refs. There is no such thing as a Big East ref. The Big East does not have a referee pool. O’Connell has done games in the MAAC and ACC as well. Ayers has hit eight different conferences and, just in January, has done games in San Francisco, Orlando, and New York. He is by no means a Big East ref.
John Cahill assigns the games for the Big East. He puts out the schedule and guys sign up. If Roger Ayers wants one and signs up, he gets it. They use Arbiter Sports*, same as your local high school. Maybe Kellen Miliner wants one of the games, all he has to do is get certified by the NCAA (he is, I didn’t make him up), get the Big East to select him from the summer camps, and go. Who is in charge of those summer camps? John Cahill. Who grades the refs? John Cahill.
If that name sounds familiar it’s because he used to be a ref. He was a decent one, but he worked with a lot of the names you know and hate now. Starting to get the idea? Imagine the person reviewing your big mistake at work wasn’t an impartial boss, but a friend. Changes things, doesn’t it?
Here are the takeaways: BOC isn’t going anywhere. He’s a made man. The refs won’t get better, there is literally no system to evaluate their performance. You’re going to continue to be infuriated, but your passion, like that of Jo in A Few Good Men, will be useless. Want things to get better? Tough luck. These guys will continue to suck and there’s nothing a single one of us can do about it.
Happy New Year!
*At least according to the most recent info I could find.