The Big 12, Conference USA, the Ohio Valley and Southland conferences are forming a consortium to manage their men's basketball referees.
Recently retired referee Curtis Shaw will coordinate the consortium, which will begin operations next season. He'll be responsible for recruiting, training, assigning and evaluating the officials.
Southland commissioner Tom Burnett says officials from the four conferences will be pooled and work under identical guidelines. The goal is to build consistency in how games are called within the four leagues.
Burnett says the consortium was also formed for logistical reasons, allowing officials to take advantage of geographic proximity to ease travel. Burnett says similar consortiums exist among other leagues and other sports throughout the country.
The Southland already shares women's basketball officials with the Sun Belt and Southwestern Athletic conferences under a similar agreement.
