If you are interested in moving up as a college football official, then you need to listen to Bill Lemonnier. Bill presently serves as a Referee for the Big 10 Conference and in the former Arena Football League. In his 15 seasons with the Big 10, Bill has been honored with 12 Bowl assignments.
These include the Fiesta Bowl, the Orange Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Holiday Bowl, the Pigskin Classic, the Texas Bowl, the GMAC Bowl and the Independence Bowl. Bill worked 8 seasons in the AFL and served as the referee for Arena Bowl XVII, and also worked the 2009 World Cup of American Football Championships in Canton, OH. Bill is also a consultant for USA Football and actively teaches football officials each year.
Podcast4 Comments
we had a friendly discussion concerning the mix of the officials for the ohio state/michigan game last sat. a comment was made indicating they were all ohio men. i expressed that would not be possible. management/assignment of officials would not permit that situation…..is there any way you might share with us the mix of the men who were on the field last week……thank you in advance, bill quilty
Comment by bill quilty — November 30, 2010 at 11:06 pm
I just watched two bowl games done by the “BIG TEN” officals and the call for unsportsman like one one was the worst I have ever seen & I played Div-1 football almost fifty years ago. In the Pinstripe Bowl the KSU play was called for Unsportsman like play for saluting when he made the touchdown. In my opinion was an absolutely worst call I have ever seen and may have cost KSU the ball game. Now, let’s go to the Mortgage Music City Bowl game. In the game I saw more than one player after making a touchdown make a gesture similar to the player in KSU. The difference in the two games was that the “BIGTEN” officals in the second bowl game didn’t give any one an unsportsman penalty. I truly think that a player has to do one hell of a lot more than just saluting to get this penalty. Hell, even in the NFL, the player making the touchdown can spike the ball and nothing is done. I think the same thing should be allowed in college football or make the ruking the same for everyone. If I were next to the two officals that made that call in the Pinstripe game, I kick there butt & believe me, at 68, I could do it too. Again, this was one of the worst calls I have seen in college fottball.
Comment by Dick Wallace — December 30, 2010 at 9:34 pm
I could’nt agree more with Dick Wallaces e-mail. I just hope more people will respond to you concerning this nonsense. I know you guys will hide behind the rules but how about consistancy and common sense. How about the officials off the wall comment to the player. Is this professional? The game is becomming all about the officials not the game itself. You should be ashamed of this performance. I am not a fan of either school but was enjoying a well played game until your officials took over. Maybe you can help to start a change in the way the game is evolving before we all leave. Good luck.
Comment by Glen Stewart — December 31, 2010 at 9:32 am
The BEST referees are almost invisible on the field. When they become visible, as in this game – they have made a bad call, and should have the courage to admit that though the rulebook backs them, they shouldn’t have called it at that moment. Especially when they didn’t make the call earlier in the game for similar exhibitions of emotion by other players. Sorry NCAA and your referees, you shouldn’t hide behind your rulebook on this one – you’d gain much more respect and become invisible if you couraged up and admited that you screwed up.
Comment by Lindy Cromwell — January 1, 2011 at 7:06 pm