To our friends at the Southeastern Conference,
For several years now, you have led a marketing campaign claiming that life in the Southeastern Conference “Just Means More.” It’s a brilliant campaign, and when you consider the level of competition of the athletic teams in your conference, combined with the academic excellent shown by your member institution, it is hard to disagree.
For example, there is no doubt that when it comes to the sport of college football, the SEC is the best in the country. It is a step above any other conference in terms of talent on the field, coaching, and championship success.
However, there is one area where the SEC greatly lags behind the asserted belief that “It Just Means More”: officiating.
It’s no secret that SEC football officiating has been subpar for several seasons now. Saturday’s Georgia-Alabama contest, where several calls were missed—including multiple that affected the outcome of the contest—is the latest example.
It is concerning, as someone who covers college football, that basic rulings and decisions, like “what constitutes breaking the plane of the goalline? and “what is a fumble?” appear to lack any consistency or baseline. The fact that an officiating crew couldn’t distinguish between a coach clearly calling timeout and clapping and choosing to redo a down instead is a microcosm of how officiating continues to affect key SEC football games.
It is, frankly, inexcusable and unacceptable that officiating year after year continues to decide or play a major role in games in the conference. The goal of officiating is to manage the game and rule on penalties and scoring. Not outright decide the outcome of games. There should only be two teams contesting a football matchup, not three.
Georgia-Auburn 2025 comes to mind.
Tennessee-Alabama 2023 was bad.
Georgia-Texas 2024 was a fiasco.
South Carolina-LSU 2024 was rough.
Ole Miss-Tennessee 2021 got out of hand.
Or, arguably the most ridiculous example: Auburn-Oklahoma 2025, which was a complete farce.
And it isn’t an issue of just one team getting unfavorable calls. The Joke in Jordan-Hare last year did a great job of taking away from the fact South Carolina once again got hosed on a fake punt getting called back on an illegal procedure that no one could spot—except the officiating crew.
This year’s Alabama-Georgia game was the marquee matchup thus far in the season. ESPN, who is paying you millions of dollars for the rights to broadcast your games pumped it up all week. They sent College Gameday to campus despite a literal hurricane warning. And then it became a mess. Officiating missed crucial call after crucial call—for both sides.
This is no longer acceptable.
It is becoming more and more apparent the officials are woefully underprepared and bordering on inadequate to be covering high stakes ball like this. Everything has moved forward—except the officials.
It is, and has been, time for the role of an official in the Southeastern Conference to be a full-time, paid staff position. The days of city engineers, insurance salesmen, and former starting quarterbacks for member institutions using this as a weekend gig deciding the outcome of games needs to end. The coaches and players do not treat this as a part time endeavor. The conference and its media partners surely do not. So why should its officials serve in a “weekend job” capacity?
If college football is truly a million dollar industry, and the SEC is truly the cream of the crop, then its product should not be dragged down by antiquated methods of sourcing referees.
I understand the individuals that officiate over SEC are doing the best they can. And I know the SEC explicitly states the criteria and standards each official must meet. But it doesn’t appear those things are enough anymore.
I have two proposals: Option one: Make serving as a Southeastern Conference official a full-time, salaried position with a strict training program and mandatory continuing education benchmarks that must be met each year. Make the salary competitive, make the benefits strong, and empower those selected to grow in their roles.
And I would give those currently employed as officials the opportunity to continue in that capacity, albeit full-time. Those who want to stay can, as long as they agree to terms, and those who don’t will no longer serve in that capacity.
Option two: do away with conference officials altogether and request the NCAA take that from all conferences. I don’t usually advocate for oversight from governing bodies, but in this case, decreasing parity from conference refs to conference refs is something that can only come from the home office. Same as before, give those doing it currently a chance to continue in the new format. And I’d rotate each crew out so they’d never have the same conference back to back weeks. It removes the claim of bias and gives officials more anonymity among fans.
I get that these people are doing the best they can, But the game of college football has elevated. And it’s time the officiating in the best conference in college football matches the on-field product.
Or, at least, doesn’t consistently affect its outcome.
Sincerely,
The Message Pitch Podcast Staff
