Big 12 Announces Robust Officiating Alliance, and Big 12 Mexico

July 12, 2023 by CollegeFootballPoll.com Staff and Big12Sports.com

The Big 12 Conference announced in early July that it has entered into a football officiating alliance with the American Athletic (FBS), Mountain West (FBS), and Southland (FCS) conferences. The alliance will be in effect for the upcoming 2023 season.

A joint release by the conferences stated that "over 300 officials will be under the alliance’s umbrella, ensuring consistent training, evaluation and grading processes across the conferences. The alliance conferences will use this pipeline to develop a “bench” of officials that have been trained and evaluated under consistent philosophies and mechanics".

Each conference will have its own coordinator of officials to manage their respective officiating programs, with the alliance overseen by Big 12 Coordinator of Officials, Greg Burks.

The American had previously been part of an alliance that included the ACC.

Here are the current alliances, (* - according to the most recent information we could find):

• ACC:
  FBS - None
  FCS - Big South, CAA, Ivy, Patriot
• B1G:
  FBS - Mid-American (MAC
  FCS - Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC)
• BIG 12:
  FBS - Mountain West (MWC)
  FCS - Southland
  D2 - Lone Star Conference (LSC), D2 Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA)
  D3 - American Southwest Conference (ASC)
• PAC-12
  *FCS - Big Sky
  *D2 - Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC)
  * - both alliances are "informal"
• SEC
  FBS - Sun Belt
  FCS - Southern Conference (SoCon)

During the off-season, the PAC-12 saw major attrition from its officiating ranks, according to FootballZebras.com. Several crew chief officials have either jumped to the Big Ten, retired, or taken a permanent position with the USFL.

We could not find any information regarding Conference USA's inclusion in such an alliance, and the ACC now appears to hjave joined the PAC-12 as the only two Autonomy 5 conferences with no affiliations to a second FBS conference.

Big 12 Mexico

In early June, the Big 12 Conference announced the launch of Big 12 Mexico, the Conference’s first international extension that will see Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball, women’s soccer and baseball games held in Mexico. Big 12 Mexico’s first contest will be a men’s and women’s basketball matchup between Kansas and Houston, held in Mexico City at Arena CDMX in December of 2024. Following the launch of Big 12 basketball in Mexico, Big 12 women’s soccer and baseball will participate in exhibitions against clubs from the region.

Additionally, the Big 12 will explore establishing a football bowl game in Monterrey, starting in 2026. This would be the first bowl game ever held in Mexico.