A Surprising Illustration of Process Management

Today I attended a luncheon meeting of the Career Women's Network. Our guest speaker, the Honorable Trip Self, superior court judge, was the guest speaker. It turns out that he is also an official for college football. He managed to enthrall 75 women by talking about football, if you can believe it.

First he described the selection process for becoming an official, and the way one moves through the hierarchy of different divisions and regions. Who knew it was such a difficult thing to achieve?

Then he talked about how often he hears variations on "how could you not see that?" Besides trying to see around 22 200-300 lb. men in gear, things happen incredibly fast. I didn't take notes, so don't hold me to these numbers (because we know how my memory is getting!):

• 8 seconds to place the ball from the completion of the last play
• 25 seconds to make sure there aren't too many people on the field and that players are not positioned incorrectly and communicate that to the referee
• 15 seconds for a play to unfold.

Within the 25 seconds, each of the seven officials on the field has a specific thing or things to check for, some of which are amazingly detailed. For example, the line official has to evaluate a potential receiver who is not on the line, but is in the neutral zone (which I think is the area between the ball and the quarterback), to make sure he doesn't catch the ball within 10 yards from the line of scrimmage.

What I really enjoyed hearing about though was the amazing process of quality control they have in place, for officials, even at the college level. There is an observer at every game who gives the team feedback immediately after the game. Then there is a league supervisor for the officials, who reviews the games and EVERY call for every game in the league. The officials are graded on EVERY play, whether a call is good, bad or questionable. They may also hear from the head coaches. And if that wasn't enough feedback, the team of officials gets together Friday night before the next game and reviews the tape on last week's game themselves. They are on one-year contracts, so too many bad calls by an official may mean his contract will not be reviewed.

In addition, they spend one weekend in training each year, take two tests on the rules each year, and review the rules before every game. (It's a good thing he's a judge; that's a lot of... ruling?)

Part of me is amazed at how much care and attention is placed on these games -- they're just games, right? But college football is really a business, and the quality of the officials is an integral part of the integrity of the ... game. There can be a lot of money at stake, whether it's for television broadcasts, bowl games, or alumni donations.

I will never watch a football game the same way again.