Originally Posted by
wilko
3) Stoppages in play are a part of the game and allow for commercial breaks... in the game current format is there ever a signal from the producer or director to the officals to stop play or go to a commercial besides the "official timeout"? Would a ref make a call they ordinarily wouldnt for the sake of going to a commercial to honor the financial obligations? Knowing this would be an extension of game and bench management.
Were this even possibly true, it would be a scandal of rather large proportion. And the refs have no financial obligations to the advertisers - it's a highly indirect connection at best. Really, this is kind of a laughable suggestion.
Also, the way that stoppages are built in pretty much ensures that no commercial break will be missed. Official timeouts occur at the first whistle with under 16, 12, 8, and 4 minutes in each half. Plus, if a team calls a timeout in the first 4 minutes of the second half, it is automatically a full length timeout. In watching hundreds and hundreds of college basketball games, I can probably count on one hand (at most) the number of times I've seen an official timeout missed because there was no whistle during a full four minute time period.
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