What is Game Day like for an official?

Once the time for kick off is set, the schedule for the upcoming game day weekend can be put together. Really, the only thing that changes is the actual start time and format for the pregame meeting. The pregame consists of many things. There are some administrative items that are taken care of, like distributing game tickets to officials that have family members or friends attending the game, discussion of travel plans for the next weekend, or maybe setting up a tee time for those wanting to play golf during an upcoming weekend. Oh, and there’s football things to talk about, as well.

If the time for kick off is before three o’clock, usually, the entire pregame meeting is held on Friday night before the game on Saturday. If it’s after three, it’s usually split into two sessions, the first half on Friday evening after dinner and the second half on Saturday morning. The total time of the pregame meeting is somewhere in the three-hour range. Early season meetings tend to last longer than those later in the season. Once the meeting has concluded, it’s time to shift into getting ready for changing into your uniform and going to the stadium.

Most all of the officials stick pretty close to the hotel on Saturday. Of course, the later the time for kick off, the more waiting there is to do during the day. No matter what time kick off is, once you get within two and a half hours of kick off, the same routine is carried out by every crew, every weekend. Two and a half hours is when the crew leaves the hotel and starts the drive to the stadium. In other words, if you have a seven o’clock kick off, you’re leaving the hotel at 4:30. Once at the stadium, you sit and wait some more.

Each official has duties that they are responsible for prior to the game getting started. For example, the referee and umpire go and visit with both head coaches. The head line judge and line judge meet with the chain crew. The back judge checks the game balls.

Generally, at one hour prior to kick off, all of the officials are on the field to monitor the warmup period between the teams. Once the teams go to their respective locker rooms before the first half kickoff, the officials head to their locker room for last minute issues that need to be taken care of. Over the next three hours and fifteen minutes, the actual game is played.

Once the game has concluded, the officials are rushed off the field into awaiting vans and escorted back to the hotel. Normally, officials shower and dress before going into a post-game debriefing session. This meeting is led by a member of the replay staff, once they arrive back from the stadium. Certain plays are discussed, fouls are talked about and transcribed into a report that is submitted to the conference office. There’s really no formal format for this meeting due to what might have happened during the game. As a rule of thumb, the post-game meeting typically last about an hour.

Once the postgame meeting has concluded, the game officials can resume somewhat of a normal lifestyle. Of course, they still represent the conference, so that has to always be kept in mind.

So, let’s say that kick off is scheduled for noon. An official is going to be involved in pregame activities almost immediately upon waking up for the day. A typical game would end at 3:15. The post-game meeting will not start until at least 4:00. If it only lasts an hour, an official doesn’t have the opportunity to kick back until after five o’clock that afternoon. If you have a six o’clock flight the next morning to go home, it doesn’t leave a whole lot of time to enjoy the evening.

Now, move all of this to a game that doesn’t start until seven or seven thirty in the evening. The post-game meeting generally doesn’t end until 12:30 or 1:00 in the morning. If you have the same six o’clock flight, you most certainly don’t have time to enjoy the evening. In fact, you’re lucky to get two or three hours of sleep before having to go to the airport.

A lot of details have been left out of this discussion. But hopefully, you now get an idea of what an official’s weekend consists of. It’s definitely not what the average person thinks. But now you know!