Is this normal?
Mike Defee is a Big 12 referee. He has been with the BIg 12 since 2006. His backstory is that he was a journeyman electrician who began officiating high school games to make extra money. He worked his way in to the Sun Belt Conference and eventually the Big 12.
What is odd is that it seems like he was still a electrician in 2006 when he moved up to the Big 12. But by 2007 he was the President of company who oversaw 4 other companies with hundreds of employees. In about 2010 he acquired his own Cessna. (EDIT: there as an aviation company under the umbrella of parent company, but Defee and a different ref called the plane “his plane” is two separate articles)
That Company is a part of a subsidiary tree that is pretty confusing, but the Newtron Group is the parent company. And three people, who might be lawyering up after a federal investigation into a Baton Rouge charity was announced, are all major TAF and OLOL donors, and the biggest players for Newtron. John Schempf, Newton B Thomas, and David Funes can all be googled at your leisure. All three are major donors and David Funes travels with the team and has been noted to stand on the sidelines at games.
This group has also donated millions of dollars in the form of construction work for LSU.
Is it not a conflict of interest to have this strong affiliation with major institutional donors while at the same time officiating the games of that institution?
