mvargus;842381746 said:
Most schools will contract officials to show up at scrimmages and some practices to help out, they could do that. They also should be attending seminars and workshops to fully cover any rule changes, the techniques and responsibilities for their officiating position and in general refining their skills. Heck most pro athletes practice year round now, you practically have to if you want to keep up, officials should be doing the same thing.
Seminars and workshops will not consume 8 or 9 months of time. Those things can be scheduled for weekends or at night. The athletes work out all the time in the off-season in order to be more effective on pass plays, running plays, blocking, tackling, defending. Officials are not required for most of that practice. The players are also in weight training with the S&C coaches in the off-season. What is the official supposed to do during this time?
One of the reasons we love college football so much is that there are so few games to enjoy. Every single game counts! Baseball, on the other hand, kills it by playing too many games over too long a stretch. So when a season is compressed into less than three months, if you're a team like we were in '12 and '13 with no bowl game, then there are nine months between seasons. It's asking a lot of a person to be a referee and give up a profession for the greater part of a year.
One solution is to find people who are well-off, love football and are not in need of regular income. With that, you're asking for people over 50 and it isn't exactly the profile you want. [e.g., people who buy entry to the University Club] Ideally, a ref should be between the ages of 30 and 50, in good health, athletic and able to understand and apply the rules. But those are prime earning years and family years, you'd be hard-pressed to find a large contingent of people available.
