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I met a guy last night at a gathering of Duke alumni. He said he was an umpire in the 1990's in the ACC.

He said his association of umpires had a contract to do a lot of non conference games in North Carolina, and each year the Umpire-in-Chief would have a preseason meeting of all the umpires. He would say:

"Gentlemen, I want you always to keep in mind, when umpiring these games when the kids up north come down to play: Remember who signs our checks!"

He said it was that overt. And he said that coaches could blackball individual umpires from officiating their games, which added to the pressure to call bang bangers a certain way.

Is this guy blowing smoke?
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I wasn't there. I can only say two things:

1. In 30 years of umpiring that have included work for four D-1 and two D-iii conferences, I have never head anything like said or inferred.

2. If I had heard such a thing, I'd have walked out of the meeting. Sounds like your guy is saying he stayed. So, if he is telling the truth, he's as big a weasel as the UIC.
I too have never worked ACC ball now or 20+ years ago....

Yet, like Mike said there were guys who held some ideas I had a hard time with...But that being said no one in a league position has ever told me to do "home cooking".....

Thats an overt cheat for the home team statement....and its sad if true..

There are however some levels and rating systems that do allow coaches to rate and scratch (blackball) a number of umpires to determine a list of umpires for playoffs...

If a coach wants to scratch me from a playoff list because I wont call a game in his favor.....please do so....I dont mind having my integrity proven without a shadow of a doubt....

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