<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">NCAA officials are expecting a backlash and a potentially lasting blow to their credibility because of the allegations that NBA official Tim Donaghy made calls with the purpose of affecting point spreads the past two seasons. ESPN.com contacted a handful of NCAA officials Sunday and found that they were distressed over the FBI's investigation into Donaghy while also fearing that the officiating profession has been irreparably harmed. The allegations about Tim Donaghy's betting on games he officiated has put a cloud over all referees. But Donaghy's case also will be used as a wide-reaching teaching tool to further educate officials about the danger of gambling and to ensure that officials stay above reproach in all aspects of their lives. "If it's true, and the initial reports indicate that it is, then it's a huge black eye on all officials, at all levels," said veteran college referee Rick Hartzell, who also serves as Northern Iowa's athletic director but refuses to officiate any game with a fellow Missouri Valley team to avoid a conflict of interest. "People are now going to look that if someone at the highest level of officiating can be bought or swayed to have an impact on a game, then maybe everybody can. It paints all of us in a horrible light. It's a very, very sad thing. I hope that somehow people look at this as an individual who made a mistake and don't paint us with the broad brush, but it's a huge black eye." Veteran official Mike Wood said that fans are more hostile today -- and if a controversial call is made, right or wrong, he said officials will hear comments alluding to the Donaghy scandal.</div> <div align="center">Source: ESPN</div> NCAA reffs, for the record, are a million times better than the NBA reffs.
To avoid scandals, ACC performs background checks on refs <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">PINEHURST, N.C. -- The Atlantic Coast Conference has performed background checks for the past year on game officials in three sports in an effort to prevent gambling scandals like the one faced by the NBA. During an annual wide-ranging news conference Tuesday, conference commissioner John Swofford also said the league would decide in December where to host its football championship games in 2008-10 and discussed how the ACC is preparing for another two-year term coordinating Bowl Championship Series operations beginning in January. The dominant issue was the background checks, which Swofford said were approved by university presidents two years ago and began last year on officials in football and men's and women's basketball. "It's not a catchall, end-all by any means, but it does show a proactive way of looking at this and hopefully raising red flags if there are any to be raised," Swofford said. About 75 of the roughly 225 officials in those sports will be investigated each year, and every official's background will be checked once in a four-year period, said Shane Lyons, the league's associate commissioner for compliance. Swofford said the ACC and Big Ten are the only conferences to implement the checks, which cost $135 apiece. The ACC-ordered probes, performed by an independent agency, include an investigation into any ties to gambling on sports, officials' credit histories and criminal and driving records at the local, state and federal levels. The NCAA performs similar checks on officials working its basketball tournaments and bowl games, he said.</div> Link
<div class="quote_poster">Voodoo Child Wrote</div><div class="quote_post"><div align="center">Source: ESPN</div> NCAA reffs, for the record, are a million times better than the NBA reffs.</div> Oh no doubt. I really feel bad for the NCAA, March Madness is far more betting-intensive than the NBA Playoffs, and since they play single elimination fans are really going to act hawkish.
