NFL officiating exec David Coleman hired as new Pac-12 officiating boss

The Pacific-12 Conference has hired NFL director of officiating David Coleman as its vice president of officiating — a newly created position for the college conference.  Coleman had been with the NFL in the officiating department since 2010.

In a news release, the Pac-12 says Coleman will be responsible for directly overseeing the football officiating staff and develop a “comprehensive best practice programs, training, consistency, and accountability across all other Pac-12 officiating programs.”

Coleman has previous collegiate officiating experience in the Mid Eastern Athletic Conference and the Mid American Conference.  He served the NFL as a replay official, and he worked behind the scenes in the NFL officiating office.  While Carl Johnson, Dean Blandino and Al Riveron were more in the limelight discussing officiating with the media and grading the officials’ performance, Coleman worked with the officials on operations — human resources matters, scheduling and recruiting.  He was also instrumental in helping develop the advanced training program.

Before joining the NFL, Coleman worked in the human resources field and also served his country in the United States Army, retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

In the news release, Coleman stated, “The Pac-12 has set a standard for innovation and excellence. It will be my role to lead and develop an officiating program that meets this high standard. I am confident that, along with the Pac-12 membership and our existing officiating coordinators, we can build programs that others will try to emulate.”

Specifically for the football program, Coleman replaces NFL referee Tony Corrente, who resigned as football officiating coordinator last year, reportedly in protest, after he felt the Pac-12 was not being supportive enough of him and the officials. (Jim Blackwood, the replay coordinator, was the interim replacement for Corrente.)

The NFL has not announced who will replace Coleman.

Photo: Pac-12/NFL