FBS football vs. basketball pay out of whack

[zebrastripes]

I have it on good authority that for most of the D1 conferences, the per-game fees are more or less the same for football officials and (men's) basketball officials. For example, the SEC was in the $4,500/game range for both sports in the 2025-26 year.

Now, let me be clear that I am well aware there is a major supply/demand imbalance for high-level NCAA officiating. I'm not expecting any active P4 football official to disrupt the apple cart.

But, what I will also say is that in addition to there only being 10 or 11 regular season opportunities to make money in football, every one of those games carries with it a much higher level of scrutiny than a single regular season (and largely meaningless) college basketball game. In football, crews do significantly more preparation for each game. Every game is subject to a much higher level of scrutiny and accountability. The rulebook is much thicker and easier to screw up than basketball which is largely a judgment-based sport where you can get by on subpar rules knowledge (ask me how I know). The stupid 1.5-mile conditioning tests that football officials are subject to, do not exist in basketball.

A bad foul call in a college basketball game might get you a call from a supervisor (if it's bad enough that the coach bothers to send it in). A bad flag thrown in a college football game can and will get you fired.

An elite P4 men's basketball official working 80+ games a year can easily gross $300K or more. And I can tell you that no matter what they may say at a camp, they are not reviewing and critiquing all 80+ of their games.

Compare that with the elite P4 football officials, who are grossing $60K a year at the high end in a sport that, while there are less games to work, the investment and requirements are so much higher and oversight is so much tighter because of how many fewer games there are.

I guess I'm just wondering how conferences have gotten away with this imbalance for so long and why the top conferences aren't paying at least $10,000 a game yet - in a sport that makes significantly more money than the one I'm comparing it with.

Thoughts?

[dammitbobby]

How much do NBA referees make (roughly) in a year? I'd be curious to compare that to their college peers.

[zebrastripes]

How much do NBA referees make (roughly) in a year? I'd be curious to compare that to their college peers.

https://refrsports.com/blog/nba-referee-salaries-for-2025-updated-pay-scale

According to this article (from an officiating-related website that appears to be legitimate) they start around $250K. So the “top dawgs” in MBB (Ayers, Groover, Kimble, etc.) are definitely grossing more than NBA rookies, but they also have to pay all their expenses (just like CFO officials). Plus, independent contractors have to pay both sides of the payroll taxes.

[Morningrise]

A lot of D1 compensation is based on time away from home. Even though football has fewer games and thus each game (and each officiating performance) matters more, it makes sense to me that a hoops referee traveling between 3 games in a week would expect to pull down 3x the money as a football referee who flies out Friday and is home by Sunday at the latest.

[Grant - AR]

A lot of D1 compensation is based on time away from home. Even though football has fewer games and thus each game (and each officiating performance) matters more, it makes sense to me that a hoops referee traveling between 3 games in a week would expect to pull down 3x the money as a football referee who flies out Friday and is home by Sunday at the latest.

Several years ago, this topic was being discussed in the D1 conference I was working.  We football officials felt like we should get paid more than the basketball officials per game for several reasons.

1. There would be 60K - 100K fans at our games and only 10K - 20K at a basketball game so the revenue generated by football was much, much larger.
2. Officials for both sports had to pay travel out of our checks.  Hotels during football season were typically around $250 per night with a 2-night minimum.  Hotels during basketball season were about half the price with no 2-night minimum.
3. We had to be in town on Friday afternoon for a Saturday game and very seldom were able to get out of town until Sunday morning.  The basketball officials were required to be in town four hours (I think this was the time frame) before tip-off. 
4. Basketball officials were able to work in multiple conferences and, many times, were able to drive between games so they didn't have the additional costs of airfare, rental cars, etc.

I feel like there were a couple of other arguments, but it's been quite a while and I can't remember what they were.  Anyway, this was brought up to the supervisor and he basically said we were being paid as much as any of the other football conferences so we shouldn't gripe.  In other words, he wasn't going to go to bat for us with the commissioner. 

[ElvisLives]

IMHO, sport organization managers view officials as a necessary [you pick the word]. They are almost always an afterthought. Even in the NFL, the funding for officiating is literally a tiny portion of the overall budget. (I’d like to say “fraction,” but that, literally, means less than 1%, and I can’t support that, but I wouldn’t be surprised.)
So, don’t hold your breath of getting paid proportionally to the service provided.
Just wait ‘til some genius figures out how to use AI for officiating. We’re history, then.

[bossman72]

Anyway, this was brought up to the supervisor ...

There's your problem.  The supervisor should not be doing your contract negotiations.  This should be your association president and others on the Eboard with the conference commissioner or whoever oversees football.
The supervisor is hired by the conference. He will never push hard for a raise for you.  He can never take a hard stand because at the end of the day he's employed by the conference and will go along with them.  The response you received is pretty typical of all supervisors.

[bossman72]

I guess I'm just wondering how conferences have gotten away with this imbalance for so long

Have you been officiating for more than 10 minutes?  lol 

This happens at every level in every sport all the way down to youth games.  There's always someone willing to work for less just to control the schedule or work the games.  Nobody in D1 is going to trade places with anyone in D2/3.  There's no leverage to demand anything because they'll just take one of the other hundred applicants to the conference if you're not willing to work for what they're offering. We're also independent contractors and can't formally collectively bargain or strike which doesn't help.

If anyone has leverage to raise fees, it's the high school officials.  There's nobody to "pull up" to work the games and there's already a shortage.  So why haven't they gotten their fees up?  Same answer.

[Grant - AR]

There's your problem.  The supervisor should not be doing your contract negotiations.  This should be your association president and others on the Eboard with the conference commissioner or whoever oversees football.
The supervisor is hired by the conference. He will never push hard for a raise for you.  He can never take a hard stand because at the end of the day he's employed by the conference and will go along with them.  The response you received is pretty typical of all supervisors.

Over my career, I worked for five different supervisors.  I know for a fact that two of them definitely went to bat for us and one of them did not.  One didn't know what was going on half the time and the other was an interim one year (of the two years I worked for him) so I'm not sure if he went to bat for us or not. 

I do know that the board met with the commissioner each year, but I don't know if they ever brought it up or not.  I was just happy to be at that level and was fine with what I was getting paid.