Overview — Great Lakes Collegiate Football Officials' Clinic

Welcome to Great Lakes Collegiate Football Officials' Clinic

The Great Lakes Collegiate Football Officiating Clinic has developed a reputation as one of the premier clinics in the land.

Covering 3 days, we provide participants with both classroom and on-field instruction in an effort to advance your knowledge and understanding of the NCAA rules, enforcements and mechanics.

The clinic concludes with attendees given an opportunity to work a spring scrimmage at one of the region’s collegiate universities. Observers will evaluate your performance and provide feedback. They will conduct a post-game video review highlighting your strengths and areas in need of improvement.

Clinic Overview

2027 will be our 29th annual clinic. The Clinic will begin with registration from 9:30an - 11:00am. The schedule includes a first-time participant orientation from 11:00am-11:30am session; Lunch at 11:15 am; and opening remarks at 12:00 Noon. There will be lunch and dinner on Thursday; breakfast and lunch on Friday; breakfast at the hotel and lunch (at scrimmage site) on Saturday.

By starting the clinic on Thursday at noon, we have added the needed time to enhance your classroom experience. The clinic is divided into three stages.

First, we will have several presentations regarding collegiate rules and how they relate to running, passing and kicking games. Participants will attend each of these sessions.

Secondly, we will address mechanics by breaking into 7 groups: Line of Scrimmage officials (LJ and HLJ); Deep wing officials (FJ, SJ); Back Judge; Umpire; Referee; and Center Judge and Replay. Participants will attend one of these sessions.

Finally, on Saturday, groups of officials will travel to a scrimmage site where they will have a pre-game, work a scrimmage, receive on-field instruction, and participate in a post-scrimmage video review.

We suggest, if you travel by air, do your best to schedule your departing (Saturday) flight NO earlier than 6 pm. We also suggest, if possible, to delay making flight arraignment until after you have been assigned to your scrimmage. Scrimmage times are all over the board – we even have some that you may be assigned to on Friday afternoon. Be as patient with travel as possible.

The Clinic will again be at the Best Western / Comfort Inn / Okemos Conference Center. These fine facilities and accommodating staff make it an ideal site for our classroom and breakout mechanics and rules sessions.

One of the local restaurants will provide excellent food for the event. In addition, it’s central location to the colleges and universities in the region provide a reasonable commute to our Saturday scrimmage sites.