ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥

One, it’s likely Padilla will never officiate a game at McKale Center again, or any UA game.

Two, the NCAA men’s basketball selection committee, wishing to avoid any repercussions from Zona Zoo’s “F— the Mormonsâ€� chant, might choose not to send ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ to games in the Salt Lake City regional for the unforeseeable future.

Both would be costly decisions.

Like him or not, Padilla is regarded as the second-best referee in the Big 12, behind only Kipp Kissinger. Padilla officiated the Final Four in 2022, 2017 and 2016; the only other Big 12 official with three Final Fours is Verne Harris, 2017, 2015 and 2014.

ranks Padilla as the nation’s No. 7 official. The only other Big 12 refs in the Top 50 are Kissinger (2), Mike Reed (26), Gregory Nixon (34), Michael Greenstein (38), Randy McCall (45) and Harris (50).

Padilla, McCall and Harris are nearing retirement. The Big 12 has not produced high-quality younger replacements for those so-called “eliteâ€� officials. Padilla is in such demand that, through Friday, he had officiated 86 games, the fourth-highest total in college basketball. He is scheduled with such a workload that after leaving ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ last weekend, he worked the Baylor-Cincinnati, Kansas State-UCF and St. Mary’s-LMU games on successive nights, Tuesday through Thursday, coast to coast.

The Big 12 (from the Pac-12) lost perhaps its two best referees, John Higgins and ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s Chris Rastatter, in the last two years. Higgins is now coordinator of Big 12 refs and Rastatter has a similar job with the NCAA. That hurt the officiating pool.

There is precedent for “blackballing� officials from the UA’s Pac-12 years.

In 1992, after UCLA broke ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s 71-game winning streak at McKale Center, referee Tom Harrington never officiated another UA game. The Pac-10 fired him 15 months later, even though he had officiated three Final Fours. The problem was that Lute Olson loudly criticized Harrington for calling a technical foul on him with 5:55 left with UCLA leading 79-74.

“In my 35 years of coaching, it’s the most ridiculous call I’ve ever seen,� said Olson, whose influence was legendary in the Pac-12. Harrington’s career went poof. Thank goodness Tommy Lloyd didn’t crush Padilla verbally.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ has gone 41-17 in games worked by Padilla dating to 2015, which includes this season’s overtime victory over Iowa State.

If the NCAA selection committee chooses not to allow ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ to play in Salt Lake City, it would be a letdown for UA fans, who have traveled in big numbers to SLC regionals seven times since 1991, going 11-2.

Salt Lake City played host to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ last year; the Wildcats beat Long Beach State and Dayton in NCAA games there with maybe 4,000 UA fans in the building. SLC is scheduled to host two games again in 2028.