Big Sky men’s basketball officials will now be included in the Pac-12, Mountain West, Big West, West Coast and Western Athletic Conferences’ officiating consortium for the 2016-2017 season.
The Western Officiating Consortium will now hold all six Division I men’s basketball leagues in the Western United States.
“We take collective pride in the regional collaboration that will produce the largest and most comprehensive officiating consortium in Division I men’s college basketball, servicing 62 member schools across 16 states,” the commissioners from the original five conferences said in a press release.
“Since starting the endeavor three seasons ago, great strides have been made toward providing the best officiating program for our coaches and student-athletes, and we welcome the Big Sky to the joint effort to advance this initiative.”
The WOC was created to encourage consistency in training, development and evaluation in officiating and to grow the pool of officials.
The organization started between the Pac-12 and the Mountain West before the 2013-2014 season, and the Big West, WCC and WAC began their affiliation before the 2015-2016 season.
WOC Officiating Coordinator and veteran referee Bobby Dibler will continue his position. Before being instated, Dibler was the coordinator for officials for the Mountain West and WAC for 20 years. Previously, he spent another 20 years officiating 11 NCAA Tournaments, three Final Fours and several NITs.
The coordinators’ group recruits, trains and assigns officials that meet the standards of the WOC. There are pre-season training clinics for the officials to focus on mechanics, game situations, rules and other knowledge necessary to referee effectively.
“The Big Sky Conference coaches and administrators welcome the opportunity to join the consortium, and appreciate the five other leagues for the invitation,” Big Sky Commissioner Andrea Williams said.
“We share the vision of training, educating and assigning officials to create a more consistently officiated game and look forward to the benefits provided by the WOC collaboration.”