I EXPECT few would disagree that college football is the biggest college sport. While competitors for this title, like netball, see colleges struggle to put out two teams at most football sees colleges easily field three teams and some have as many as five. Yet the legitimacy of football as a competitive college sport continues to be harmed by the state of refereeing.
In college football, referees are provided by designated ‘home’ teams in each fixture, and assigned to a neutral game. Often players are forced to stand in at the last minute when the allocated official is absent. This was the case in at least two games I covered last term. While I am not criticising all referees (as many do a fine job), for the university’s premier college sport,“good in patches” is not good enough.
My suggestion, for college football to be taken seriously is for referees to be provided for all first team games. This is not unrealistic. College rugby, netball and hockey all have referees provided, often taken from the ranks of university teams. This model should be emulated for football 1sts.
In an ideal world, linesmen would be provided too, though at the moment this can be nothing more than a dream. Regardless of the issue of linesmen, college football refereeing must be addressed. The burden should no longer fall on captains to organise reluctant referees who may not be up to standard, who will be more susceptible to influence and whose decisions can be so easily questioned.