Lockout over!!!

[tmagan]

I know college basketball officials are independent contractors. But college football officials work for a specific conference, so how come they are not unionized?

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by tmagan

I know college basketball officials are independent contractors. But college football officials work for a specific conference, so how come they are not unionized?

They are still independent contractors. They are paid like independent contractors and they are assigned games like independent contractors. They can be replaced anytime and often are replaced.

Peace

[Texas Aggie]

Its difficult to unionize when you have multiple employers. NFL officials can be hired and fired based solely on the discretion of the NFL, just like the control college conferences have. The difference is the multitude of college conferences on all levels of college basketball -- NCAA D1, 2, 3, NAIA, and Juco. There are officials who work all of those classifications (some even for both genders). Essentially, collective bargaining wouldn't work for the Big 10 solely (for example), and conferences colluding to bargain collectively would bring up sticky legal issues.