SEC needs to get some younger officials that are in shape. All conferences for that matter.
Just for funā¦ If I were CFB commissioner, the officiating would be overhauled like thisā¦
Keep in mind, some of this stuff is already in place, they just don't do a very good job with it.
There is a hiring of a Power 4 group of officials, enough to cover all the necessary games. So no more conference specific groups.
They will be full time officials and will work on 1 year contracts and receive benefits and year round training, but are also subjected to game-by-game and season-by-season reviews which can impact their standing. Officials must pass fairly extensive physicals and occasional examinations on the rules and regulations, not just overall rules, but also tailored to their duties (which position(s) they can be assigned to cover). Head referees must be able to test out on all of the material.
Officials are rated on their game performances by the head coaches from the games they call, with a standardized report card and feedback system. That system is optional, but those who don't partake may lose out on getting the higher rated crews for their games in certain instances. Any major discrepancies in the grades are reviewed by a 3rd party "retired" official who is basically a grade arbitrator.
The officiating crews with the highest grades are assigned to the higher profile games each week. If they keep doing a good job and getting graded well, they will keep doing those games. If their grades drop, the quality of the games they call will drop as well. Over time, after an initial couple of seasons of fluctuation in the "rankings", the overall rankings would likely begin to settle into a more firm pattern much like we see the same football teams in the top 20 year after year.
Each official would be deeply vetted on their backgrounds. Nobody on a crew who went to [insert school here] or has ever been associated with [insert school here] in a number of listed ways, can call that team's games. But, there is an option for crews to swap/trade out officials for a game weekend if it's agreed to by both head referees and the overall commissioner of officiating. Example: Crew A has a back judge who put 3 kids through school at Ohio State, but they are a good crew and were selected for an OSU v. Michigan game. They can swap their back judge out with another crew for that game. Only official that cannot be swapped out is the head referee.
At the end of the season, bonus money is awarded by tier to the best crews. Top 20% or whatever. Also, every crew and official is reviewed and either resigned to another contract or let go based on overall performance.
The bottom 30% of crews have to partake in extra/extended off season training.
An incentive program is started and funded by the Power 4 to try and cultivate a younger generation into the business. Nationwide training programs, similar to umpire schools in baseball, where applications are accepted and those approved are given free training to help them start (or continue) their careers at the lower levels of football like the high school level or Div III.
