From electronic whistles to masks, college football referees prepare for change

Jay Bilbo has been prepping in his backyard and in open fields. After missing out on spring practice, he wants to make sure he’s not rusty for the start of the season. He needs to get in some reps any way he can.

But he’s not throwing balls or running routes. He’s side-shuffling. He’s running backward. He’s visualizing plays in front of him. He’s thinking about when he’d blow a whistle.

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Bilbo isn’t a football player or a coach. He’s a Big 12 line judge, and he has to get used to changes as an official, too.

“I’m going to be that goofy guy in the neighborhood running around sideways and backpedaling with a whistle going off every 20 seconds,” Bilbo said. “My neighbors might think I’m insane.”

With conferences releasing new schedules and plans to play the football season during a pandemic being devised, it’s not just the teams that need to get into game shape under unusual circumstances. So do game officials. They didn’t have spring scrimmages to officiate, and clinics were called off or adjusted amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Just like players, their typical offseason routines changed. That means there’s catching up to do before the season.

There are all types of new protocols for officials, from working the game itself, to traveling, to figuring out who will officiate the games, to knowing when to test and how to react. If games are to happen, officials need to be ready to work.

“This year is going to be like none other,” said Steve Shaw, the national coordinator of officials and a former SEC head referee. “There are going to be distractions, new ways of doing things. One of the things we have to do when we walk on that field is concentrate and focus. We have to put all that aside and still work a football game.”

Games will look different from the start. Per NCAA rules for 2020, the coin toss will involve only one captain from each team and one official. No other players, no media, no special coin tosses. It’ll be as few people as possible.

Officials must also wear a mask. It can be a type of their choice, but it must be solid black. Masks can be pulled down periodically on the field if an official needs to take some unimpeded breaths away from other people, but it must be fully in place by the snap. Line judges working the sideline near coaches and players will have to be extra careful if they pull their mask down briefly. Asked about face shields, Shaw said they were discussed but not required because of concerns about clear vision, which is a key part of every official’s job. Eyewear is also allowed but not required.

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Whistles will be electronic buttons, not physically blown, because of concerns about spray from the mouth. Officials will be outfitted with a handheld whistle device. They could hold it in their hand or attach it to their waist. It’ll be a major adjustment, but they’re not concerned about volume.

“My wife won’t let me blow this thing indoors anymore,” Shaw said of the electronic whistle. “Because it’s very loud.”

Team sidelines have been expanded from the 25-yard lines to the 15-yard lines to allow for more distancing. There will be more enforcement of the six-yard restricted area between the bench and the field. Face-to-face confrontations between coaches and officials have already decreased since the enforcement of those borders a few years ago, but it’ll be even more important now. In baseball, manager arguments with umpires have come with masks on and distance between the two.

Life outside of the game brings its own concerns. Officials work day jobs during the week, and they’ve been advised to be as safe and as quarantined as possible, in order to get through the season on weekends. Many fly to games, but there will be numerous changes to those protocols. Officials from lower levels who have seen their seasons postponed have also offered their services for FBS.

“We’ve looked at, for every official, what’s a four-hour drive time? What’s a five-hour drive time? What’s a six-hour drive time?” Shaw said. “How could we work with that, how could we minimize air travel? So we’re all heads down working on that to see. Within a conference, could a regionalized approach be helpful to us?”

As a result, officials could work several games involving the same team, which is not typical procedure. They’re usually spread around teams in a conference from week to week. But unique times call for unique measures. Greg Burks, who coordinates officiating for the Big 12 and Mountain West, said there are two full-time staff members in Hawaii, plus others with junior college experience, and they may become a Hawaii crew for most games on the islands, for example. Conference officiating leaders are working together to figure out the best plans for their officials, even if that means working in different leagues.

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“In our national meeting, we all agreed to set aside the conference logos,” Burks said. “For instance, for games at West Virginia, we have three officials in the Pennsylvania area, but they’re the only three that could drive. So I’ve reached out to the Big Ten and ACC, so we’re going to have to do that kind of collaboration.

“I know coaches prefer faces they recognize, but this is just going to be a different year.”

Shaw said officials will be tested within 72 hours before games, just like players and coaches. How to do that is still being worked out by the individual conferences. There will be on-site tests or symptom checks before games on Saturday, too, depending on what’s available.

“We’re warning the officials to self-identify,” Shaw added. “The old mentality, ‘I’ve got a cold but I’m going to gut it out,’ we just can’t do that anymore.”

Officiating crews typically have a Friday night meeting when they arrive in the town. Those may move to video calls instead, with room service instead of going out to dinner, in case someone wakes up sick on Saturday. They don’t want to lose a whole crew to quarantine.

If someone does get pulled from a game, contingencies are in place. There is often a replacement official ready anyway, but crews are also going over six-person and seven-person mechanics, along with the current eight-person setup.

“Once or twice a week, someone has a scenario of, ‘Here’s a play, let’s say we only have six or we only have five,’” Bilbo said of his crew’s preparation. “How do we handle if someone goes down, the in-game communication of how we’re going to rotate?”

For some officials, the risks of going out on that field for a game are too great right now. Both Shaw and Burks said some have opted out. Replay officials are typically the oldest, meaning they’re the most vulnerable age group for COVID-19, and they’re not in an open-air environment in the press box. They’re among the greatest concerns for officiating associations.

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“If you’re uncomfortable with this environment and you don’t want to officiate, you’re not going to lose your status,” Shaw said. “We’ve seen it in sports (with players). We’re letting the officials take a pass. Not many are doing that, but we’re giving them that option.”

Officiating can be a well-paying side gig, with top workers making a few thousand dollars per game, though officials pay their own expenses like travel. The number of weekly hours they put into it during a season is nearly another full-time job. They don’t do it for the pay, but for some, a change in that income with fewer games or potentially no games in a canceled season can make a difference.

“For me personally, it’s something I love to do and I happen to get paid for it. I’m in a very grateful situation,” said Bilbo, who works in information technology. “But a number of my friends, they were able to retire early, so they’re 57 and use that money on vacations for the grandkids. Some other friends work at nonprofits and this money is a make or break on living a little bit more comfortably or not. … Some people are stressed out about it. They’ve had enough success to get to a level where that money truly helps them out. It’s nothing you really dive into that deeply because we do it because we love it. No one’s ever like, ‘I’m going out there for the check.’ Most people are like, ‘I love the fact that we get to do something we love to do.’”

Without in-person clinics, officials turned to remote clinics over video conference during the offseason. Instead of long meetings in conference rooms, the clinics were done in smaller chunks over a period of time. Many found it more useful, and it may happen more in the future. Shaw believes officials are more ready for this season from a film study standpoint than they ever have been before. But they haven’t gotten the on-field reps they typically do.

On-field changes like electronic whistles might cause some problems early on, like inadvertent whistles, but it’ll have to be worked through. It’s likely to be a strange season with unique challenges, but ones that everyone is hopeful to take on. As Burks put it, he hopes to be arguing about a pass interference call soon.

“I have a sense in talking to coaches that we hope these problems occur,” Burks said of inadvertent whistles. “Because that means we’re playing football.”

(Photo: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)

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