It's a hard job and the good umps get very little credit from anyone but the most astute fans, but there is no excuse for retaining umps who don't deserve keeping their jobs. If the SEC believes what they claim about sports meaning more to SEC fans, they can afford to hire the best officials in every SEC sport. Good old boys with friends in B-ham should have no advantage at all.
In baseball almost every call should be cut and dried. It was in the strike zone or it wasn't. The ball was fair or foul. He was safe or he was out. But then you get calls like did he leave the basepath? Did he swing or not? Did he come set or was that a balk? Umps that screw up the first kinds of calls on a regular basis should not be retained. The second kind are often up for debate.
