Head of SEC officiating fired

#1
Hoosier_Vol

Hoosier_Vol

Vol Stuck in B1G 10 Hell
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#1
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The longtime head of basketball referees for the Southeastern Conference was fired and replaced, but the league wouldn't give the reason for his ouster, which came amid the departure of two game officials.

Commissioner Mike Slive said the termination of John Guthrie after 25 years was "a personnel matter" and declined further comment.

Reached at home in Atlanta, Guthrie also declined to discuss his departure, according to a story published Friday in The Birmingham News.

"I won't have much to say at this time," he said.

Guthrie confirmed to another newspaper, the Knoxville News Sentinel, that he did not resign and was terminated by the SEC office.

The News Sentinel also reported Friday that an SEC referee from Atlanta, Jason McNeil, will not be assigned to officiate any more SEC basketball games. Slive would not comment on McNeil's status, either.

Another SEC basketball official from Atlanta, Travis Correll, resigned earlier this week after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit in Texas alleging he and others ran a fraudulent investment scheme that raised more than $26 million since July 2004.

Slive said Correll would have been removed from officiating league games had he not quit.

Correll, who was in his second season as an SEC basketball ref, was accused with five others of selling interests in purported foreign and international bank deposit programs promising risk-free returns of 4 percent to 12 percent.

According to the complaint, the bank deposit program did not exist and investment returns came from the proceeds of more recent investors in what is commonly referred to as a Ponzi scheme.

Guthrie said his firing had nothing to do with the investigation of Correll, who has an Atlanta-based company called Horton Establishment.

Guthrie was replaced in the league position by Gerald Boudreaux, a director of parks and recreation in Lafayette, La., who has worked as an SEC official for more than 20 years.

As coordinator of officials, he will be responsible for making assignments for the nearly 70 men that the conference can call on to officiate basketball games. Slive said the league had a conference call with coaches on Thursday to discuss the change.

Slive said Boudreaux was acting in as interim coordinator of basketball officials.

"He has strong feelings about this conference and right now is willing to step up and help. At the end of the season, he and I can evaluate the job," said Slive.
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#2
#2
Now if they'd only clean out the corrupt football refs, starting with Bobby Gaston...

:banghead:
 
#3
#3
Probabaly fired him because of all those dad blame penalties called against UT for holding or illegal blocking against Tennessee during kick off and punt returns.
 
#4
#4
(utfantilidie @ Dec 19 said:
Probabaly fired him because of all those dad blame penalties called against UT for holding or illegal blocking against Tennessee during kick off and punt returns.
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yeah considering hes in charge of basketball
 
#5
#5
(mattvols @ Dec 19 said:
yeah considering hes in charge of basketball
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my bad, didn't mean to ruffle your feathers.

:birgits_giggle: :snoring:
 
#7
#7
Seriously, do any Tennessee fans have those SEC refs that they just love to hate? When you hear that they're calling your game, do you just cringe, knowing that they're out to get you?

For Kentucky, it was the venerable John Clogged-artery (Clougherty) and his evil sidekick Rusty Herring.

And don't forget Karl "Rudolf" Hess. Kentucky is only 14-6 when the Hessian calls our games.

Kentucky has historically won over 80% of its games, but when Clougherty called our games, we only won 71% with a record of 84-34. Conspiracy? Maybe not, but it's fun to look at.

Source: http://www.ukfans.net/jps/uk/Statistics/officials.html
 
#8
#8
I hate Budreaux because he loves to make dramatic emphatic calls in Kentucky's favor at Rupp.
 
#9
#9
I don't have a particular referee that I dislike but it does seem to me that SEC refs make underdogs work extra hard to pull off an upset.
 
#10
#10
(VolunteerHillbilly @ Dec 19 said:
I don't have a particular referee that I dislike but it does seem to me that SEC refs make underdogs work extra hard to pull off an upset.
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There's no doubt about that. I've seen it happen in football for years. It leaves little room for error for the have-nots. The good-ole-boy network really needs to be cleaned out, imo.
 
#11
#11
Yea, I think the worst call of the year was the celebration penalty against Vandy in the UF game. Take that away and the 'Dores might be at the music city bowl next week.
 
#12
#12
(VolunteerHillbilly @ Dec 19 said:
Yea, I think the worst call of the year was the celebration penalty against Vandy in the UF game. Take that away and the 'Dores might be at the music city bowl next week.
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It's hard to know now whether they would have gambled and gone for 2 at that point, but I agree that it was the biggest bogus call I've ever seen in an SEC game.

Even with replay, these morons can't seem to get it right.
 
#13
#13
(Brian McCat @ Dec 19 said:
It's hard to know now whether they would have gambled and gone for 2 at that point, but I agree that it was the biggest bogus call I've ever seen in an SEC game.

Even with replay, these morons can't seem to get it right.
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Actually, the most bogus call ever was clearly the personal foul/clock screw-up in the 2004 UT-Florida game. I say that with absolute certitude because the official has publicly admitted his call was wrong AND the league has publicly admitted that the clock was not run correctly. You don't see that every day.

 
#14
#14
(lawgator1 @ Dec 19 said:
Actually, the most bogus call ever was clearly the personal foul/clock screw-up in the 2004 UT-Florida game. I say that with absolute certitude because the official has publicly admitted his call was wrong AND the league has publicly admitted that the clock was not run correctly. You don't see that every day.
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The greatest thing about that game is that the score still stands 30-28 and Jabbar Gaffney still dropped the ball in 2000.
 
#15
#15
Don't forget about the "catch" in UT-UF game. The refs never admitted but still out there as a bad call.
 
#16
#16
(hohenfelsvol @ Dec 19 said:
Don't forget about the "catch" in UT-UF game. The refs never admitted but still out there as a bad call.
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i almost forgot about that! Now it's going to take another 5 years
 
#17
#17
Things tend to even out over the years. Both calls were bad and both teams won each respective game. Would rather not have the calls though. The catch still burns me though.
 
#18
#18
(hohenfelsvol @ Dec 19 said:
Don't forget about the "catch" in UT-UF game. The refs never admitted but still out there as a bad call.
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I agree that the TD call was a bad call, but it cannot be called "the most bogus" call because it is one of discretion, whereas the 2004 UT-UF game involved both discretion and the objectively wrong clock management by the refs. I liken it to the Colorado-Michigan game (can't remember the year) where one of the teams got a fifth down and scored to win the game. It was objectively wrong -- not a matter of discretion.



 
#21
#21
I know most here will feel UT's has been burnt more than any other team in the SEC by bad calls, but overall I feel UT's got as many or more favorable calls as other SEC Team.

Not really keeping count, but Vanderbilt appears to be called more on ticky tacky penalities (at critical times) more than any other team. At least it appears that way when I watch them.

Speaking of bad Vandy calls, if you watched the Vanderbilt / gator game you could feel Jay Cutler holding back from slugging hell out of the officials during the ot coin toss. I'm not sure I could have restrained myself...I know his Dad would not have.
 
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