Minutes after watching the David Stern news conference Tuesday, Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson opened his annual state of the conference talk by addressing the officiating issue.
“I think it’s important to know the MWC does background checks in all 19 sports,” Thompson said during the conference’s football preview in Henderson, Nev. “There’s nothing at any level in any sport more unnerving than to watch a commissioner go through that situation.”
Thompson was chairman of the NCAA basketball committee in 2000 when the procedures were set in motion to conduct background checks on all officials working NCAA Tournament games.
During the regular season, conferences submit lists of football officials deemed worthy of working bowl games so the NCAA can begin its background checks.
Big 12 Conference coordinator of football officials Walt Anderson said Tuesday in San Antonio that the league reviews every play of every game to see if there are suspicious common denominators. The same is done in basketball. This is the third year the Big 12 has conducted background checks on current and prospective officials.
“(Background checks) are not always comfortable for the officials, to be scrutinized,” Anderson said. “But that’s the nature of the game. You almost give up the Bill of Rights when you become an official.
“But it’s a choice. You work in a fishbowl, a fishbowl that gets replayed every play.”
Each year a segment of the MWC officiating roster is randomly selected for background checks of any adverse financial issues (such as bankruptcy), and any felony convictions or traffic convictions (such as DUI). The league has hired two private investigators, who also work for other conferences, to conduct the checks.
“That possibility (officials betting on games) has been out there since we’ve had sports,” Anderson said. “I think it’s been good that the Big 12 has been consistent about addressing that before it becomes an issue.
“Unfortunately, when it becomes an issue, everybody is a loser. The best way to deal with it is to prevent it.”
