The NFL and the Big 12 announced a partnership last week focused on officiating development.
Big 12 officials will get access to NFL clinics, teaching tapes, and accountability tools. Both organizations will work together to identify officials who could eventually work NFL games. The partnership also includes global football initiatives, analytics, emerging technology, and flag football expansion, according to the release.
Brett Yormark has been on a partnership spree since becoming Big 12 commissioner in 2022. The conference has signed deals with Microsoft, PayPal, WWE, and now the NFL. Each announcement gives Yormark another opportunity to position the Big 12 as forward-thinking compared to the Big Ten and SEC. This one comes with the added benefit of being able to say the conference is partnering with the biggest league in American sports.
The officiating component is the most immediately practical part of the announcement. Big 12 officials will gain access to NFL clinics, weekly teaching tapes, and what the NFL calls “advanced accountability tools.” Joint training and evaluation programs will expand, and both organizations will collaborate to identify officials with pro potential. For the NFL, this creates a pipeline to evaluate officials in real college games before deciding who’s ready for Sundays without having to build its own development system. For Big 12 officials, it’s a pathway to the NFL with better training along the way.
The partnership extends beyond officiating to include flag football expansion, with both organizations working to grow flag football across Big 12 campuses using NFL Flag resources and coaching tools. The Big 12 will also participate in NFL international identification camps and collaborate on emerging technology and analytics. However, the announcement didn’t offer much detail beyond mentioning player-tracking technology and performance systems.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.