My buddy once told me the same thing, basically that the league wants parity and there really isn't that much parity between the 10 place teams and the 1-5 place teams so the league officals are going to take that into perspective when they are calling the game. My response to him was there doesn't need to be parity, its not our fault if UAA and others can't compete with the rest of the league in recruiting.
In my opinion the refs real reason for being there is to call the game not take politics into the equation. I could give a rats ass if 7-10 can't compete without trying to slow down the game, what next a cap on the number of top recruits a team can have?