Flock Talk: Working for the Weekend

 

“Everyone’s watching, to see what you will do…

For as long as the Pac-12 was a 12-team conference, there were two things fans of every school could agree on: their dislike of Larry Scott’s leadership and their frustration with officiating. The constant refrain was that the referees weren’t up to the job. Defensive-minded fans thought pass interference was called too often and too loosely, while high-octane offenses swore referees swallowed the whistle on obvious contact. Throw in holding calls, targeting, and inconsistent spots, and Pac-12 officiating became as much a part of the culture as late-night kickoffs.

Fans everywhere complain about refs—it’s part of being a football fan. But when USC, UCLA, Washington, and Oregon announced their move to the Big Ten, one of the quiet subtexts was relief: “Finally, we’ll be in a league where the officiating matches the stakes.”

I’ve never been one to harp on bad calls. Every fan base feels like it gets the short end, even in a win. Still, watching Oregon–Penn State Saturday night, I saw missed holding calls that weren’t borderline, I saw multiple bad spots that disadvantaged Oregon, and I know Penn State fans walked away feeling like a momentum-swinging call went against them. That’s not just noise—it’s the reality that one or two decisions can swing a game’s outcome.

And the stakes are massive. If Noah Whittington’s fumble had not been overturned, could that have cost Oregon a spot in the Big Ten Championship Game? Could it have changed playoff seeding? Could it have impacted Dan Lanning’s contract incentives? Every game is 100-plus plays, but officials’ mistakes are not evenly distributed. Some of them land right on the hinge points of livelihoods, reputations, and, in some cases, the physical safety of players.

Here’s the hard truth: those hinge points are in the hands of part-time employees. College football officials earn $1,500 to $3,000 per game. They’re expected to study film, attend clinics, maintain elite fitness, and work scrimmages. But most of them also hold demanding full-time jobs outside of football. The “offseason” that should be devoted to training and recalibration is, in reality, devoted to careers and families.

That model isn’t unique to sports. In medicine, studies show residents who work longer hours without protected training time are more likely to make serious errors. In aviation, regulators require documented “recency” because they know skill deteriorates without continuous reps. In higher education, students taught by part-time adjuncts consistently underperform compared to those with full-time professors—because the extra preparation and coordination simply aren’t possible without dedicated time. Across fields, the evidence says the same thing: when highly technical roles are treated as side jobs, performance suffers.

Football officials aren’t an exception to that rule. They’re an illustration of it.

So the question becomes: in a sport where billions of dollars ride on the outcome of a handful of Saturdays, do we really believe part-time officiating is what’s best?

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The Case for Professionalization

When you step outside of football and look at other high-stakes fields, a pattern emerges. The professions where split-second judgment and precision matter most have all recognized the same thing: you cannot treat them as side jobs.

Medicine tightened resident hours and introduced structured training not because hospitals wanted to coddle young doctors, but because fatigue and lack of preparation were directly tied to error rates and patient harm. In one national study, limiting residents’ work hours reduced the risk of serious medical errors by nearly a third. The lesson was clear: protected training time equals safer outcomes.

Aviation takes the principle even further. Pilots aren’t allowed to simply say, “I know how to fly, I’ll show up when needed.” They’re bound by strict “currency” requirements—documented takeoffs, landings, and recurrent checkrides. Regulators know skills degrade without continuous reps, so they codified practice into law.

Even higher education provides a telling example. Students taught by part-time adjunct faculty consistently underperform compared to those taught by full-time professors. Why? Because when teaching is a side gig, prep time, coordination, and ongoing development inevitably take a backseat.

Sports itself offers the most direct comparison. In 2001, the Premier League created the PGMOL and moved to a full-time referee model. The idea was simple: if you want better accuracy, remove the second job. Give referees the time and resources to train year-round, to review film daily, to maintain elite physical fitness. Studies of European soccer showed that professionalization not only improved accuracy but reduced home-field bias. Decisions became more consistent, less swayed by environment or emotion.

The NFL, for its part, experimented with full-time referees in 2017–2019. The league rolled it back in part because the implementation was flawed—officials weren’t given enough structured duties in the offseason to justify the investment. But the very fact the NFL tried underscores the recognition that officiating at the highest level is too important to leave as a side hustle.

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College Football’s Outlier

Now compare that to college football. At the FBS level, games routinely decide not just bowl bids but playoff berths, coaching contracts, recruiting momentum, and the financial health of athletic departments. Billions of dollars hang in the balance. Yet the referees making these calls are overwhelmingly part-timers. They’re accountants, lawyers, executives, teachers—who on Saturdays step into a role where their decisions can alter the course of careers.

It’s not as if the expectations are light. In the offseason, college referees are required to:

• Take a preseason rules test and meet a minimum score just to remain eligible for assignments.
• Engage in position-specific training, reviewing film and guides to sharpen mechanics.
• Attend rules clinics, where conferences introduce new interpretations and points of emphasis.
• Participate in officiating camps, combining classroom instruction and on-field reps, often used for evaluation and advancement.
• Commit to weekly video analysis, breaking down mechanics and reviewing difficult calls.
• Undergo performance evaluations, where supervisors grade and composite their work across an entire season.

On paper, it looks comprehensive—rules tests, clinics, film study, physical fitness, performance evaluations. But here’s the catch: all of this is happening around other full-time jobs. The offseason that could be spent on daily film review or structured training sessions is instead split between careers, families, and officiating.

That reality separates college officials from professionals in medicine, aviation, and even European soccer refereeing. Doctors have mandated duty-hour limits and structured training built into their schedules. Pilots can’t even fly without documented recency practice. Premier League referees train full-time with coaching staff and daily film study. College football referees? They try to fit these requirements into the margins of their lives.

And that’s the crux of the problem. The system asks for professional standards from officials—but doesn’t give them a professional structure.

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The Need for Reform

At its core, the problem isn’t that college football officials don’t care, or that they don’t work hard. They do. The problem is structural. The sport demands professional-level precision from part-time employees. And no matter how much pride, effort, or experience officials bring, they’re operating under constraints that medicine, aviation, and even professional sports learned long ago are untenable.

Every replay review that decides a fumble or a targeting call, every spot that determines a fourth-down conversion, every flag that swings momentum—those aren’t just minor judgment calls. They’re decisions that shape the financial futures of programs, the careers of coaches, and the safety of players. Billion-dollar television deals, playoff berths, and entire athletic departments are impacted by moments decided by referees who spent their week as accountants, executives, or teachers.

If college football is serious about credibility, consistency, and fairness, then the system has to evolve. Conferences and the NCAA should establish a core group of full-time referees—officials who spend their entire year on training, evaluation, fitness, and film study. Give them the structure and resources already proven in other industries and in European soccer. Make professional development not something squeezed into evenings and weekends, but the foundation of the role.

Fans will always complain about officiating. That’s part of the game. But coaches, players, and programs deserve to know that the people making those decisions are as prepared and as supported as possible. Anything less undermines the sport itself.

The choice is simple: continue relying on part-time officials in a billion-dollar enterprise—or recognize what the evidence makes clear, and professionalize college football officiating before the stakes get even higher.