NCAA launches officiating reform initiative

The NCAA has extended its current agreement with RefQuest Plus, its officiating services provider, and is implementing a long-term strategy to provide additional resources and tools to assist all conferences in addressing concerns about officiating.

Starting with the 2024-25 academic year, the NCAA will cover the cost of the RQ+ officiating platform, including payment transaction fees and signature software costs, for Division II and III and single-sport conferences. Additionally, the NCAA will supplement up to $10,000 in platform costs for Division I conferences.

“This agreement with RQ+ puts in place a long-term strategy to help solve some of the biggest concerns we’ve heard from the membership regarding officiating,” said Anthony Holman, NCAA vice president of championships. “We are committing the financial resources to aid conferences and growing the next generation of officials while better educating and supporting current ones.”

This initiative provides collective benefits for schools, conferences, student-athletes and officials by:

• Offering immediate financial relief for conferences.
• Increasing the number of NCAA-registered officials from about 23,000 to over 35,000.
• Ensuring better-educated officials and consistent officiating through national standards in education and training opportunities.
• Identifying and addressing regions experiencing officiating shortages.
• Enhancing integrity through an officiating compliance program that includes background checks and sports wagering education.
• Enhancing the student-athlete experience with a continued commitment to a consistent, fair and safe competition environment.
• Creating broader opportunities for officials to work across conferences and divisions.
• Protecting officials with general liability, professional liability and accident/medical insurance.
• Increasing the number of officials eligible to work NCAA championships.

“With this initiative, the NCAA is demonstrating an unwavering commitment and dedication to its membership and the officiating community,” said Bo Boroski, RQ+ founder and CEO. “This collaborative initiative was founded on the need to provide opportunities, education and protections for all stakeholders.”

The RQ+ platform specifically will aid the membership with assignments, secure payment, document management with integrated signature software and education engagement tools. 

The comprehensive platform serves as a centralized location for athletics administrators and coaches to access essential information and tools. Further, the initiative will assist conferences and schools in using resources. The officiating database will provide an expanded profile that will aggregate key officiating metrics, including officiating trends by sport and geographic region, attrition rates and median-age tracking.

A primary component of the initiative is the officiating compliance program, a recurring report to conference offices that assists in ensuring officials have completed NCAA central hub registration and background check consent. RQ+ will offer administrative support to conference offices and officials regarding these requirements.

RQ+ representatives will contact each conference office beginning Wednesday with more detailed information.