As a third year official I am not yet ready to advance to anything beyond the level I do now (High school boys and girls- hoping to get some varsity next year), but looking ahead...

If one were to choose a place to live based upon the ease to move into the college ranks as a referee, what area or state would one choose?

As a practical matter, there are very few colleges here in Wa., and quite a bit of competition for the few openings. (or so it appears from my perspective)

I don't know that any one area is the best. Any place with lots of colleges will have lots of opportunities, but there will always be competition for the reffing spots. If you are willing to move, I would probably look at the midwest. That way, if you have D1 asperations and ability, you can look east or west for opportunities. There are not that many spots at that level sho you have to be good and to a certain extent, lucky.

Agree .. Midwest..
 

Young Michigan officials move up rather quickly. Lots of Juco and Division II & III are abundant.

I really cannot answer for every state............
 

but the Midwest seems to be a pretty good area for advancement. Just in the Chicago area that I live, many of the assignors are from this area and assign all the way into Wisconsin and Indiana. Milwaukee is about an hour and a half away from Chicago and there are many Wisconsin officials working in all kinds of conferences in Illinois and Indiana and Wisconsin as well. Even guys from Iowa are working all over. There are so many D3, D2, JUCO and NAIA all over the Midwest. Many opportunites for many officials. In Chicago alone we have many NBA, D1 NCAA (both women's and men's basketball), ABA, CBA other Pro-Am officials. The Big Ten Office is in Chicago, many camps are run out of the area for evaluation. Great place to advance, but I do not know how typical that is around the country.

Peace

I think we had this discussion not too long ago. The Midwest has an abundance of opportunities, as has been stated. My two cents was to recommend Southern California for many of the same reasons. Lots of JUCO, NAIA, and NCAA D1 - D3 schools and leagues. I attended a camp in San Diego several years ago and got the impression that the higher level guys (D1) were very active in watching for new talent coming along and working with younger and newer officials that showed a desire to improve.

The only negative I saw was that there was one person who controlled a significant portion of the JUCO and lower level college assigning. His stated philosophy was that he could watch somebody work for five minutes and tell if he was a good official. Once he made a decision, he did not easily change his mind. I don't know if he is still around, though.