The B12 led the way in their experimentation of an 8 man ref crew last season, and now all other FBS conferences can follow suit.

NCAA to allow widespread usage of eight-man officiating crews

Quote:Will bigger officiating crews be a healthy alternative to the controversial 10-second substitution proposal that seems unlikely to pass?

If so, going from seven to eight officials will be easy.

The NCAA rules committee will allow every FBS conference to implement eight-man crews if they so choose, the committee told Big 12 officials coordinator Walt Anderson.

The Big 12 was the first to experiment with eight instead of seven, getting a one-year trial approval last season from the NCAA and football officiating coordinators.

Now that approval won't be necessary.

Eight blind mice are better than seven?

(03-04-2014 02:35 PM)Wedge Wrote:  Eight blind mice are better than seven?

You can always hope they bring along a seeing eye mouse for the 8th spot.

I distinctly recall lots of complaints about the XII's reffing ability esp. missed calls. I'm not sure what having the 8th ref on the field does other than pay an extra guy a travel stipend.

That said, the time has come for there not to be anymore conference-based referees. The CFP (since the NCAA doesn't control FBS football) should have one pool of refs for all of FBS. Keeping crews local would probably still be a priority, but it would be preferable to having conferences influencing the outcomes of games.

You're right, there would still be geographic consideration in assignments because it would be pointless to send officials from Seattle to ref a regular-season game in Miami or vice versa.

The P5 could fund a football officiating pool for all of FBS, with a supervisor of officials, mandatory training, evaluation and grading, and coordination of assignments. The home team for each game would still be responsible for paying the cost of travel and expenses for the assigned officiating crew.

So expect 14% more flags to be thrown per game.

(03-04-2014 03:04 PM)Wedge Wrote:  The P5 could fund a football officiating pool for all of FBS, with a supervisor of officials, mandatory training, evaluation and grading, and coordination of assignments. The home team for each game would still be responsible for paying the cost of travel and expenses for the assigned officiating crew.

I know the MAC and Big Ten do exactly that.

Do any other conferences with similar footprints pool their officials?

Commuter and Wedge, hear hear. Couldn't agree more. I'd like to at least see some leagues join up and do it. No reason say the Pac-12, MWC and BYU couldn't join together for an officiating pool for the revenue sports. Same goes with say the ACC, ND, SEC, Sun Belt and Conference USA or the Big 10, MAC, American and Army. Realistically it'd just be one pool for all of 1-A but anything that gets us closer is better.

Sun Belt has hired the SEC supervisor of officials to assign officials this year in football.

(03-04-2014 04:35 PM)uakronkid Wrote:  I know the MAC and Big Ten do exactly that.

Do any other conferences with similar footprints pool their officials?

(03-04-2014 04:40 PM)brista21 Wrote:  Commuter and Wedge, hear hear. Couldn't agree more. I'd like to at least see some leagues join up and do it. No reason say the Pac-12, MWC and BYU couldn't join together for an officiating pool for the revenue sports. Same goes with say the ACC, ND, SEC, Sun Belt and Conference USA or the Big 10, MAC, American and Army. Realistically it'd just be one pool for all of 1-A but anything that gets us closer is better.

The Pac-12 and MWC have a basketball officiating pool.

http://pac-12.com/article/2013/06/07/pac...g-alliance

Quote:WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - The Pac-12 and the Mountain West have entered into a broad collaboration to manage their men's basketball officiating programs, the Conferences announced today. Longtime officiating coordinator Bobby Dibler will oversee the programs of both conferences and manage a top-level roster of regional and national officials.

Three other prominent western conferences, the West Coast Conference, the Big West Conference and Western Athletic Conference, will participate in the new collaboration's officiating training programs. The WCC and Big West have previously participated in Pac-12 training and with the participation of the Mountain West and WAC, the new collaboration brings a common approach to training to more officials.

(03-04-2014 05:53 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(03-04-2014 04:35 PM)uakronkid Wrote:  I know the MAC and Big Ten do exactly that.

Do any other conferences with similar footprints pool their officials?

(03-04-2014 04:40 PM)brista21 Wrote:  Commuter and Wedge, hear hear. Couldn't agree more. I'd like to at least see some leagues join up and do it. No reason say the Pac-12, MWC and BYU couldn't join together for an officiating pool for the revenue sports. Same goes with say the ACC, ND, SEC, Sun Belt and Conference USA or the Big 10, MAC, American and Army. Realistically it'd just be one pool for all of 1-A but anything that gets us closer is better.

The Pac-12 and MWC have a basketball officiating pool.

http://pac-12.com/article/2013/06/07/pac...g-alliance

Quote:WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - The Pac-12 and the Mountain West have entered into a broad collaboration to manage their men's basketball officiating programs, the Conferences announced today. Longtime officiating coordinator Bobby Dibler will oversee the programs of both conferences and manage a top-level roster of regional and national officials.

Three other prominent western conferences, the West Coast Conference, the Big West Conference and Western Athletic Conference, will participate in the new collaboration's officiating training programs. The WCC and Big West have previously participated in Pac-12 training and with the participation of the Mountain West and WAC, the new collaboration brings a common approach to training to more officials.

There are several pools for basketball, which is a must for 31 conferences. Football only has the B1G/MAC pool to my knowledge. Every other FBS conference has their own refs.

The biggest problem I see with referees is that they're part time employees. IMO they should be hired full time, and spend a good bit of time training to properly perform their job. A part timer is an amateur, even if he is getting paid for his efforts. A true pro spends all his time and efforts in his chosen field.

(03-04-2014 08:12 PM)bitcruncher Wrote:  The biggest problem I see with referees is that they're part time employees. IMO they should be hired full time, and spend a good bit of time training to properly perform their job. A part timer is an amateur, even if he is getting paid for his efforts. A true pro spends all his time and efforts in his chosen field.

The NFL officials(save Carl Johnson and a few others) are all part-timers as well.

Speaking of the 8th official, the NFL is looking to do a test run of an 8-man crew this preseason. According to this link, the Alternate would be referred to as the Center Judge and take the position currently used(outside of certain situations) by the Umpire, who would move back, permanently, to his old spot in the middle of the linebackers.

(03-04-2014 04:35 PM)uakronkid Wrote:  

(03-04-2014 03:04 PM)Wedge Wrote:  The P5 could fund a football officiating pool for all of FBS, with a supervisor of officials, mandatory training, evaluation and grading, and coordination of assignments. The home team for each game would still be responsible for paying the cost of travel and expenses for the assigned officiating crew.

I know the MAC and Big Ten do exactly that.

Do any other conferences with similar footprints pool their officials?

C-USA and BigXII (and I believe MWC before they paired up with the PAC-12) used to pool theirs (don't think they ever quit, but I"m not sure anymore.). So I'm actually in favor of this, if the pool is shared still.