TESTING PATIENCE

by brent killackey

TESTING PATIENCE

It was a season with many tests — and lots of COVID-19 testing — as college football officials navigated through the pandemic’s hurdles to play.

There was nothing that could have

prepared college football officials for the type of season they would face in the fall of 2020. But then again, who really anticipated the type of worldwide disruption caused by COVID-19?

Amid the pandemic, many expected there wouldn’t even be a 2020 season. All signs initially pointed that way. In early July, the Ivy League became the first conference to call off football and other fall sports. On Aug. 5, the NCAA Divisions II and III fall championships were canceled. By the next week multiple conferences, including the Mountain West and MidAmerican (MAC), had announced the cancellation of the fall season. Maybe they’d play in the spring, they said.

But there had not been agreement among the Power 5 conferences. While the Big Ten and Pac-12 initially canceled, the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big 12 and Southeastern (SEC) started their seasons in September.

“It was difficult to watch,” said Chris Coyte, a referee in the Pac-12. It gave him a taste of what retirement from football officiating will eventually feel like — games going and he’s not on the field — and he said it wasn’t something he looked forward to.

But for the Mountain West, MAC, Big Ten and Pac-12, being sidelined wouldn’t last for long. With other Power 5 conferences showing a path forward, and with administrators and medical experts figuring out ways it could be safely done, all announced a return to play in shortened fall seasons. But a return to the field didn’t mean a normal season.

“Flexibility was the key throughout the last six months,” said Bill Carollo, coordinator of football officials for the Collegiate Officiating Consortium, which serves the MAC, Big Ten and Missouri Valley conferences. “It was challenging. It was something new in trying to find solutions to the problems every week and how do we handle it.”

Officials like Big Ten back judge Robert Smith had to be more flexible than others.

“I don’t know if anybody had the up-and-down experience I had,” Smith said.

Getting Underway

For Smith, the season started on a high note. The Waterloo, Iowa, resident was among the officials assigned to the first all-Black officiating crew for a Power 5 football game — Michigan at Minnesota on Oct. 24.

“That’s how the season started, to be part of something unique and special,” Smith said.

The following Saturday, he worked the Ohio State-Penn State matchup.

All was going well, but it was definitely a different season. There were no fans in the stands. Officials had to wear masks. There were no in-person pregame meetings; those were conducted over Zoom. And, of course, officials had to take COVID-19 tests.

Each conference had its own testing protocols. Pac-12 officials did a self-administered, mid-week mail-in test and an in-person antigen test a certain amount of time before the game, according to David Coleman, vice president of officiating for the Pac-12. Big Ten officials were tested upon arrival at the game site Friday night and again Saturday ahead of the game.

On Nov. 6, Smith arrived at Nebraska for the game against Northwestern the next day.

He got the news no official wanted to hear in 2020 — his rapid test came back positive.

In the Big Ten, officials received a rapid response test on Friday, which provided results in 20-30 minutes. A positive result triggered a more accurate PCR test, which took hours to process. If clear, the official would take the rapid response test again Saturday morning. If that was negative, the official was cleared to officiate.

In the Collegiate Officiating Consortium, approximately 15 to 16 percent of officials tested positive at some point during the season, Carollo said. Add false positives into the mix and the number was about 20 percent.

Smith got the news Saturday morning that his PCR test was negative. But as he was getting ready to hit the field, his rapid response test from that day came back positive. Without time to get PCR results back before the game, protocol required Smith to head home.

“That was so disappointing when I first went through it,” Smith said. “It was like I was letting the conference down, letting Bill (Carollo) down, letting my crew down.”

But he said Carollo was understanding and his crewmates were and supportive. “Everybody was texting as I was driving back. It was heartfelt, it really was,” Smith said. “You talk about a bond.”

A second PCR test would come back negative. But testing positive in any fashion had implications outside of the college football world. Smith was required to inform his employer — the University of Northern Iowa, where he works as executive director of the Center of Urban Education — that he had a positive COVID test. And his employer’s COVID protocols didn’t factor in any later negative tests. A positive result meant he would have to quarantine.

“I had to tell my staff I couldn’t come in,” Smith said. “It didn’t just affect me in that arena as an official refereeing, it affected me in my personal life as well.”

He quarantined at home for 10 days. “I can’t remember being that drained,” he said. “I wanted to get on the field and I couldn’t.”

There were protocols that had to be followed and, unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the only time his season would be disrupted by a false positive. The second time, he was at Purdue. Again, sent home, but cleared by the PCR test results.

“Mentally, I was so frustrated,” Smith said. He said the conference took care of him for his time and travel, but with every future test, there was always that element of uncertainty.

“You talk about being on needles,” he said.

Smith said the season started and ended on a good note — no further positives other than the two false ones, and wrapping up the season with the Rose Bowl. “But during the middle, I don’t recall in my lifetime being that mentally and physically drained because of the unknown,” he said.

Big Ten back judge Robert Smith started his season with a game at Minnesota on Oct. 24, 2020, that featured the Big Ten’s first all-Black crew.

Testing Toll

Throughout college football, whether or not an official would be working that week was something that always loomed on his or her mind. Each stage of testing was another step that could force

them off the field for a stretch.

Coyte described the impact as such: “We were jumping lily pad to lily pad in a minefield with overhead artillery fire and trying to stay dry in the rain.

“The challenge was being in mental game condition even though there were all these things you had to be concerned about that could take you out of the game,” he said.

And while the Pac-12 — like every other conference — had a number of officials who tested positive during the week and couldn’t work, they only had one instance of an official testing positive at the game site. And fortunately, it was at a site near where the official lived, so someone could pick him up and take him home, Coleman said.

Coyte was one of the few officials who didn’t lose a game due to testing positive or having teams test positive and canceling, although he missed the latter only by a bit of luck. His regular crew had a game canceled 90 minutes before kickoff, but that was a week he had been assigned to a mixed crew that was created when other officials had tested positive and couldn’t work. He ended up working eight games, including the Cotton Bowl.

Cancellations

Ron Snodgrass, a referee in the Big Ten, wasn’t as fortunate, however.

“I had a string of bad luck, that’s what I had,” Snodgrass said. “It could have happened to anybody.”

Snodgrass lost half his schedule — what would have been 10 games ended up being five — due to COVID disruptions that resulted in cancellations.

“I got hit by the cancellation bug,” Snodgrass said. “It was hit and miss. Almost every other week for a while. Work a game. Lose a game.”

In the Big Ten, 13 of the 63 scheduled games were canceled during the season. In the MAC, five of the 37 scheduled games were canceled. No FBS college football program that played in the fall was immune. In total, 139 games were canceled or rescheduled due to pandemic disruptions. And even the number of bowl games was cut by more than one-quarter.

While Snodgrass bore a heavier burden of game cancellations than most, it was a situation many officials encountered during the season. At least in Snodgrass’ case, the cancellations all occurred during the week — he had some luck in that he didn’t learn of cancellations upon arrival at the game site, unlike Coyte’s crew.

Snodgrass was poised to close out the season with a bowl assignment — the Orange Bowl in Miami. But the pandemic would dog him all season.

“Not only did I get hit by the cancellations, I got hit by the virus at the end of the season,” he said. After he tested positive in the week before the bowl, Larry Smith instead worked as referee on that game.

Big Ten referee Ron Snodgrass officiates a Nov. 7 game between Michigan State and Iowa.

Alternate Experience

Snodgrass may have lost half his season to the fates — but as luck would have it, the delayed start to the Big Ten season provided a different officiating opportunity.

It gave Snodgrass a chance to do something he hadn’t for roughly 25 years — officiate at the high school level. Aware that local assigners in Missouri were facing a shortage of officials, as some sat out the season and schedules were more chaotic than usual, Snodgrass registered with the Missouri State High School Activities Association and spoke with a local assigner.

“I told him I don’t want to take games away from anybody,” Snodgrass said.

Amid COVID and opt-outs, the assigner had a need for officials this season. Snodgrass filled in on crews for four games — twice as referee, once as a back judge and once as

a line judge. “I had a great time,” he said. “I got to meet some of the local guys that I didn’t know. It was fun being out there.”

It was football, but it wasn’t the same pay rate as working a Power 5 conference. Between a shortened season, losing games to COVID and additional travel expenses because rooms and rentals couldn’t be shared, many officials faced a smaller paycheck.

“It’s a financial hit obviously, but again it’s out of your control,” Snodgrass said.

Assigner Challenges

Last-minute changes to schedules and losing officials to positive COVID tests added to the work and stress on officiating leaders.

Carollo said he aimed for regional assignments, but with a staff that includes officials from all parts of the country, assigning purely regionally just wasn’t possible.

It led to one case of an official testing positive right before a game at Nebraska needing to make the long drive home to Oregon — flying was no longer an option after a positive test.

“We still compensated our officials when that happened,” Carollo said. “We covered their game fees for that. That was the right thing to do.”

A regional assigning approach was considered in the Pac-12, but Coleman said both he and his officials wanted crews to stay together — and regional assigning just wasn’t going to be an option anyway, not with where officials hailed from, including five of seven white hats living in Southern California.

In the Pac-12, one crew always had a scheduled week off — its members ready to fill-in if there was attrition elsewhere.

Carollo created a list of officials by position, noting which game sites each official could reach within a fourhour drive. If an official tested positive, Carollo could look at his list and immediately see who was available. The list featured officials in the consortium, not just Big Ten officials. In a few cases, it meant an official who didn’t normally work in the Big Ten got that opportunity.

But a shortened season in some conferences and cancellations throughout college football meant fewer game checks for officials.

“People lost money, but at the same time it was their decision to work,” Carollo said. About 6 to 7 percent of the consortium staff opted out of working the season, and he made it clear that was fine: “I told everyone up front, no one is going to lose their spot.”

Pac-12 referee Chris Coyte finishes his season at the Dec. 30 Cotton Bowl in Arlington, Texas.

Game changes

Testing wasn’t the only change for the season. There were no in-person pregame meetings. Instead, officials turned to Zoom, sometimes meeting before leaving for the game site, other times meeting from hotel rooms. It was a year without carpooling, crew dinners or family members accompanying officials for the weekend. Officials often got dressed at the hotel and then a caravan of officiating vehicles — 11 or 12 cars with the eight onfield officials, two replay officials, an alternate and sometimes a timer — headed to the empty stadiums. At least parking was never an issue.

Stepping into the empty stadiums was different at first, but for officials used to focusing on the game and tuning out background noise, it wasn’t a huge deal.

“Frankly, I never noticed it,” Coyte said, noting many stadiums pumped in crowd noise.

2020

(Fall) College Football Season Data

Total number of regular season games canceled or postponed – 139

Canceled or Not Rescheduled – 89

Bowls Canceled:

Bahamas Bowl Celebration Bowl Fenway Bowl Frisco Bowl Las Vegas Bowl Hawaii Bowl Holiday Bowl Pinstripe Bowl Quick Lane Bowl

Redbox Bowl Sun Bowl Guaranteed Rate Bowl Independence Bowl Birmingham Bowl Military Bowl Texas Bowl Music City Bowl Gasparilla Bowl

SOURCE: CBS SPORTS

Officials in the SEC suited up with an additional sensor to wear: Kinexon SafeZone tags, according to John McDaid, coordinator of football officials. The devices were the same as those used by the NFL and inside the NBA’s bubble during the summer and fall of 2020.

The wearable devices provided a precise measure of proximity and duration of contact with other people, making contact tracing easier.

Officials also had to wear masks. Prior to the season, Carollo took an hourlong brisk walk and even mowed his lawn in 80 degree temperatures wearing a mask just to get the flavor of how officiating with the masks would work.

It took a few weeks for everyone to get into the desired habits with the protocols, but it became second nature as the season continued, Carollo said. Officials said it quickly became second nature to pull masks up and down as the situation demanded.

Some conferences tried electronic whistles during the early days of the season, but after a few weeks went back to traditional whistles that were louder and allowed more varied cadences.

Despite all the additional demands on officials, there were no complaints.

“I have to say we were all happy to be doing it,” Snodgrass said. “Nobody complained about all that stuff. Just like the players wanted to play, the officials wanted to officiate. We would have done anything.”

Carollo and Coleman both called the season a success. And at least one thing brought about because of the pandemic might be here to stay: Zoom training. It was a summer and fall of online training for officials — and Carollo said they had never been better prepared for a season. While not a substitute for in-person training or experience in a game, online training may have found a place in a postpandemic world.

And technically, college football isn’t yet done. Many conferences that opted not to play in the fall are doing so this spring, many heading toward a FCS championship in May.

Eyes on the Fall

Looking to the fall, there’s hope for a normal season with vaccines making their way into the population and fans starting to return to sports stadiums.

“Even if we have to continue taking some of these measures ensuring health and safety of officials and studentathletes, coaches, everyone who is involved, we’ll have the experience of being able to do it and being able to do it even better because we know what’s going on,” Coleman said.

If the pandemic has shown anything, it’s that we don’t know what’s around the corner. For Coyte, that’s a critical thing learned.

“We had control over how we were prepared mentally as individuals,” Coyte said. “We also matured as people and officials to become a lot more patient and a lot more flexible, which I’m not. I wouldn’t describe myself as a superpatient guy or a super-flexible guy. I had to learn to do that.

“In the end, we all just tried to do the best that we could to work through what was a very unique, unexpected season.” Brent Killackey is a former high school baseball umpire and Referee’s managing editor. *