Saban, Moore, and Steve Shaw..

[shaschboy]

Went to the Regions Classic yesterday in B-ham (Champions Tour Golf Tour.) and was amazed at what I saw. Steve Shaw was working the 18th green for the tourney and was greeting the celebrities and players as they came off the course. Steve Shaw, by the way, is one of the top SEC football officials. I watched him greet Spurrier with a handshake and pretty much handled his greetings with everyone with the same similarity. Well, that changed when the group of Nick Saban, Tom Kite, Mal Moore (Bama AD) and Jay Barker came through. Shaw ran up to Saban like a lap dog and put his arm around him and gave him a big hug. He then walked over to Moore, put his arm around him, and preceeded to escort him to the waiting reporters. I was with 2 Bamers and they agreed that it was definately a love fest, more so by Shaw than Moore or Saban.

Is there anything here? Don't know, but I will say this-I will definately watch any game he calls which will involve Alabama. Knowing that Shaw lives in B-ham, I'm sure your life can be a lot easier when you don't have the mighty Bama riding rough-shot over you for making bad calls.

 

[dawgatUSM]

shocker.

 

[TheBigBadDawg]

A Bammer homer in some sort of official capacity pulling strings for the Great Sabear and his posse? Surely that would never happen.

 

[Todd4State]

according to him, Shaw is a Bama alum.

If he is, Shaw can not work any games that involve Bama.

That probably explains the lovefest.

 

[TheBigBadDawg]

that's exactly the case. Graduated from Bama in the early 80's. Apparently, Saban's been having him ref their spring game, but he can't officiate any real games.

 

[shaschboy]

definately call the others. And he oversees who gets sent where i.e. Penn Wagers. See this little tidbit from a local Bama newspaper. It would seem to me that he could definately work magic for Bama by allowing the one team that could pass them in the West to lose. If you don't think SEC officials are in the fix, go back and watch our 98 championship game against the #1 Vols.

Shaw is an alumnus of Alabama and is not allowed to officiate Crimson Tide games, though he has worked several games featuring Auburn. He told a story of a game in 2005 when Auburn and LSU met in Baton Rouge.

 

[DowntownDawg]

....although I don't know how you remedy the situation unless you don't allow graduates of SEC schools to officiate them. It's the same way in baseball. I have friend who is an SEC baseball ump who graduated from State. He can't do State in a weekend series, but if we were in a division or conference race, he could do our closest competitor. And he's not the kind that would do anything untoward, but you know there have to be some out there that would. Hopefully, the SEC office would do their best to keep these officials from games that influence their alma mater directly.

 

[coach66]

a couple of years ago. He was a senior executive with BellSouth then and has continued in that role today with AT&T. He is a very nice, polished guy and a pretty good golfer, but most of all he is an unashamed bama fan. He does love SEC football that was obvious as well.

 

[bankerbullie]

As mentioned below, Steve cannot call any games in which Alabama is involved...knowing this fine man over the past several years(and having the opportunity to play golf in groups with him a couple of times), I assure you that the friendliness and ability to treat everyone the same is a trait of his...Although I am certainly not a Bama fan, Steve is one of their alumni that they can be very proud of, and don't think anyone can find anywhere he has been anything but fair to us at MSU..

 

[shaschboy]

but can you say the same for Rocky Goode? These guys have all worked together for years. It comes down to this-our conference is about 1 thing and 1 thing only-MONEY. If we are in a dead heat with Alabama and the winner goes to Atlanta, guess who's gonna get the "home cookin"? It ain't gonna be us, that's for sure. The conference got so lucky last year seeing Alabama and Florida in the championship with either one of them going to the Nat. champ. game. Now, can anyone tell me when the underdog won the SEC championship game? Just ask Arkansas or us. I think there may have been a game involving Georgia which really had no pertinent outcome, but if one of the teams has a chance to do something on a national scale, they WILL make it to that next game.

 

[o_rexxx]

The biggest reason that SEC refs are the worst refs in the nation is that they only, or at least mainly, hire refs that are graduates of SEC schools. The best conference in America should try to get the best refs in America but instead they try to get the best that graduate from one of twelve schools.

 

[Todd4State]

Rocky Goode is on the take or if he is stupid.

 

[shaschboy]

Goode hard a definite hard on for Sherrill.

Nothing surprises me anymore with these guys. As much as I hate Ole Miss, they definitely got the shaft by Doyle Jackson 2 years ago.

 

[dd69]

My FIL's father use to ref SEC games and would rountinly get drunk with the Bear after games while my FIL rode the elevator with the elevator operator/babysiter. Those were the days!

 

[LewisNixon]

glad you posted it. Shaw is a good official, did not know he was a Bama homer. Also never knew he was an alum and could not call Bama games.

Ask JPR and he will tell you who I am.

Have a good one.

 

[HammerOfTheDogs]

...he says the SEC only looks at former SEC football players for their referee pool. Says it's VERY hard to break in if you didn't play for an SEC school.

The "you can't ref your own school" rule isn't very effective, especially if you get to ref your rival's games. Al Mathews (former Vandy player) pretty much gave the Florida-Tennessee game to the Gators one year.

 

[dawgmaster]

nm

 

[bulldogbaja]

Signed,
The Big East.

Basketball, though, definitely.