When Scott Campbell was selected to officiate last year’s 100th Rose Bowl, he never thought anything could top it. Just a year later, the longtime Hollister resident has landed a historic assignment—the first-ever college football National Playoffs Championship Game on Jan. 12 at AT&T Stadium, formerly known as Cowboys Stadium.
When Scott Campbell was selected to officiate last year’s 100th Rose Bowl, he never thought anything could top it.
Lo and behold, just a year later, the longtime Hollister resident has landed a historic assignment—the first-ever college football National Playoffs Championship Game on Jan. 12 at AT&T Stadium, formerly known as Cowboys Stadium.
“I thought it was an honor to work the 100th Rose Bowl, but with this being the first year of the playoffs, it’s pretty special to get this assignment,” said Campbell, an umpire who was notified he would be part of an eight-man crew for the national title game. “I think the hype is going to be unreal, and obviously I can’t wait until Jan. 12.”
Campbell, 46, has been a firefighter and paramedic for the city of San Jose for the past 20 years. The flexibility in his schedule allows him to take weekly flights to Big 12 country, where he is an umpire for presumably one of the top refereeing crews in the nation.
To wit: All eight of the members on Campbell’s crew landed bowl-game assignments.
“That means our crew had a pretty good year,” Campbell said. “We had a pretty good year as crew, in that we didn’t have any train wrecks. That’s key in a supervisor’s eyes—they want crews to handle games without any controversy or hiccups and I think our crew accomplished that through 14 games this year.”
Each week, crews get graded on a number of factors, including proper positioning, mechanics and decision-making.
“The grades come out by Wednesday, and the evaluators look at the entire game,” Campbell said. “Each play in a game is shot from four different angles: a wide angle, TV shots, a coach’s tape, which is the same as the end zone view, and a view from the top of the stadium. They’re looking to see if we’re looking at the right place at the right time, calls we make or pass on.”
Campbell has already officiated two previous games at Cowboys Stadium, which features a leviathan of a scoreboard that is 60 yards long.
“It’s always a treat to go back there because it’s an incredible facility,” Campbell said. “When you look up and see that 60-yard high definition screen above you, it almost seems it can’t be real because it’s so big.”
Campbell officiated 17 games last year and has done 14 this season, and he gets a lot of marquee matchups. His highlight this year—other than getting the national title game assignment, of course—was Baylor opening up its new stadium against SMU on Aug. 31.
Campbell was at midfield with a host of special guests, including former President George W. Bush and former Baylor standout and Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III.
Campbell had no time to be star-struck, as he was focused with the task at hand. Campbell also officiates in the Arena Football League, and this past season proved to be a rather important one. For the first time in his career, Campbell was the man in charge as the referee.
The move will pay dividends if Campbell decides to make the move to being a referee in college football. Don’t be surprised if you spot Campbell on TV and hearing his voice making the calls in Big 12 games in a couple of years.
Simply put, Campbell’s ascent up the officiating ranks has everything to do with hard work and talent. He treats officiating similar to how the best athletes approach their sport: by being a student of the game, or, in his case, officiating.
In the weeks leading up to the national title game, Campbell said he was still going to keep his typical weekly regimen.
“I’ll still be getting my physical exercise in and working out just as hard as during the regular season,” he said. “I’ll get back to the rule book card to make sure I don’t stump on anything, and get scouting reports for both teams. I’ll watch a lot of film and just try to stay sharp.”
Growing up, Campbell was just like any other kid—he dreamed of becoming a pro athlete, but he also had visions of becoming a referee at a high level. Now that he’s done the latter for the last several years, Campbell still has to pinch himself occasionally that he’s living out his dream.
“It’s an incredible feeling to be out there sometimes in front of 100,000 fans and officiating a game,” he said. “I still can’t believe I’m working these games sometimes, and I’m enjoying every second of it.”
