GREENSBORO, GA. – Rules interpretations and referees’ mechanics will be standardized nationwide for the first time during the 2008 football season.
The NCAA and Collegiate Commissioners Association have established a limited liability corporation called College Football Officiating LLC to create uniformity for referees.
“This has a great deal of potential for improving officiating … across the country,” ACC commissioner John Swofford said Tuesday at the league’s preseason football media kickoff.
In the past, individual conference supervisors with occasionally different interpretations were responsible for enforcing the rules. Recently, for example, instant replay reviews took place unevenly throughout the nation.
The Big Ten was the first to experiment with replay in 2004. Other conferences began using replay with varied systems until replay was standardized in 2006.
Many conferences had officials watching replay in the press box buzzing the referee on the field if they needed extra time to review plays. The Mountain West allowed one challenge per team.
Now all officiating mechanics will be supervised by the Big Ten’s Dave Parry, college football’s first national coordinator for officiating.
newsobserver.com
7/23/08
Magnolia Tribune
