SoCon joins WBB, BSB officiating consortiums

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Sept. 20, 2022) - The Southern Conference has joined with the SEC and other conferences in officiating consortiums in the sports of women's basketball and baseball, it was announced Tuesday.

The SoCon joins the SEC, ASUN, Ohio Valley, Southland, Southwestern Athletic and Sun Belt conferences in a women's basketball officiating consortium and with the SEC, ASUN, Ohio Valley and Sun Belt conferences in a baseball officiating consortium.

The consortiums were established to allow the conferences to collaborate on all officiating matters related to recruitment, education and training, scheduling and evaluation of officials.

"Having served as a commissioner on the FCS level, I appreciate the commitment to fair competition at every level of college sports," said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. "We are pleased to expand our relationship with the Southern Conference to include women's basketball and baseball in our officiating programs. Our combined resources in those sports will be mutually beneficial to the recruitment, evaluation and development of our officials."

"We are very pleased to be joining the SEC women's basketball officiating consortium and baseball umpiring consortium," said SoCon Commissioner Jim Schaus said. "We have enjoyed our officiating consortium partnerships with the SEC in men's basketball and football. They do an outstanding job of educating and training officials, plus provide a larger pool of quality officials due to having multiple other conferences involved in the consortium. We look forward to expanding our partnership to these important sports."