The Southern Conference will partner with the Southeastern Conference to coordinate its football officiating, SoCon Commissioner Jim Schaus announced Monday. The SoCon will join the SEC and the Sun Belt Conference in the officiating consortium beginning with the 2020 season.
“This is a big day for Southern Conference football to be able to partner with the top college football conference in the country in the SEC for our officiating,” Schaus said. “Being associated with the SEC will assist in attracting quality officials to the consortium, provide outstanding training and education for our officials and bring a high level of professionalism to this important operation.
“I would like to thank SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey for his commitment to partner with the Southern Conference.”
SEC Coordinator of Football Officials John McDaid will oversee the SoCon’s overall football officiating operation and will hire and oversee the league’s coordinator of football officials.
The new SoCon coordinator of officials will be involved in all areas of football officiating. The new coordinator will determine which officials will participate during the season, make game assignments, coordinate officials’ training and education throughout the year and monitor and evaluate officials.
“I am familiar with the strength of the Southern Conference from my experience as a commissioner on the FCS level,” Sankey said. “We are pleased to establish a relationship that will be mutually beneficial to each of our conference officiating programs by using our combined resources to strengthen the recruitment, evaluation and development of our officials.”
The recently completed 2019 season was the SoCon’s 98th year of football. Wofford and Furman both finished the year inside the national rankings and competed in the FCS playoffs. The Terriers won their third straight SoCon title.