Why major college football wouldn't feel much pain from an NFL officiating work stoppage

If the NFL uses replacement referees this fall amid a labor dispute with game officials, the highest division of college football is not expected to lose officials or be impacted, a half-dozen college sports administrators and officials confirmed to The Athletic.The expectation has long been that the NFL would use lower-division college officials or retired officials, as it did during the 2012 referee work stoppage. That dispute, which lasted into the season and drew widepsread backlash for mistakes like the “Fail Mary” that decided a primetime game between the Packers and Seahawks, largely featured officials from Division II and lower levels of football.Advertisement