SOURCE: The Dallas Morning News

The case of NBA "rogue referee" Tim Donaghy has forced college conferences to confront its most feared bogeyman — the possibility of another gambling scandal.

"It probably hit us all in the gut," Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe said. "It's a hard thing to accept that the games aren't being adjudicated fairly because of someone's special interest."

Full background checks are becoming the norm for football and men's basketball officials in most conferences, which hire and oversee who calls their games.

The revelation that Donaghy conspired to alter the outcome of NBA games he worked is a "less-than-subtle reminder that we have to remain vigilant at all times," Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky said. "It encourages us to redouble our efforts."

This season, even before the NBA scandal, the Big 12 had decided to do full background checks on all football and men's basketball officials, Beebe said. The conference action expands on a previous policy.

Half of the officials were to be checked before this season; the other half before next year. All new officials will be subject to immediate background checks.

All told, anti-gambling initiatives will cost the Big 12 about $50,000 this school year.

Officials were required to document their financial status as well as any legal problems, including pending lawsuits. Anything that raises questions will be subject to further investigation.

"I think most of our administrators are in the same mindset that this is probably an isolated incident," Beebe said. "Nonetheless, we're going to take all the precautions and measures we can to make sure that we have no one susceptible to the same kind of influences."

Walt Anderson, the Big 12's supervisor of football officials, has implemented conflict of interest guidelines. For example, if an official has a business relationship with a school or a close family member involved as a student or employee, he would not be allowed to work that school's games.

For the past two years, the Big 12 contracted with a security company that monitored Las Vegas football and men's basketball betting lines for any unusual movement or impropriety.

None surfaced.

Conference USA will also be expanding background checks of its officials in football and men's basketball.

"Now, we're scrubbing it even more closely," Banowsky said. "The background check is a valuable tool but it's not a certain tool. All that does is really let you know if there are flags that need to be followed."

As conferences held football media days throughout the country this summer, the topic of monitoring officials was hard to avoid. Commissioners faced the same questions again and again.

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