Diversity Developmental Clinic looks to future of football officiating: ‘This is progress’ – The Athletic

CLEMSON, S.C. A few hours before Clemsons spring game kicked off on Saturday afternoon, Dabo Swinneys football players may not have been the only ones feeling a little nervous.

One by one, just around 11 a.m., 48 officials boarded a bus to take them from the front steps of Clemsons football facility to the locker rooms at Death Valley. There, just like Swinneys players, they put on their uniforms hoping to make a strong impression.

We want you to relax and do what you do, Steve Shaw, college footballs national coordinator of officials, told them. Relax out there and just go officiate.

Shaw knew that for many of the officials, the crowd of 35,000 on hand would be the largest group of people they had ever officiated in front of, with even more watching the broadcast on ACC Network.

But his hope is that Saturday was just the beginning of propelling the 48 officials to the next steps of their careers. If all goes according to plan, Shaw will see them back in a Power 5 stadium sooner rather than later.

Some will work Division I football coming out of here. Soon. Quick, he said. Some may go to the NFL.

The officials are all minorities and traveled to Clemson last week from Texas, Missouri, Louisiana, New Jersey, Ohio and Maryland, among other states, in order to participate in the 2022 Diversity Developmental Clinic. The clinic put on by College Football Officiating, the NFL, the ACC and the SEC was a way to help up-and-coming minority officials who have already excelled in their careers, jump-start their next step. Most of the officials call college football games in smaller conferences at the Division II, Division III and FCS levels. Some are high school officials.

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Diversity Developmental Clinic looks to future of football officiating: 'This is progress' - The Athletic