ACC Coordinator of Football Officiating Doug Rhoads has announced his retirement following nearly 40 years of service.
“Doug Rhoads has been a tremendous ambassador for college football officiating,” said ACC Commissioner John Swofford. “Doug consistently brought enthusiasm, knowledge and integrity to everything he did in his nearly 40 years of service to the game and the Atlantic Coast Conference.”
Rhoads began officiating in the ACC in 1977 and spent 29 years on the field as a back judge working nearly 275 games, including 10 bowl games. He officiated some of the most prestigious games including a number of top ACC contests involving bowl and conference championship contenders.
Following a distinguished career on the field, Rhoads took over as the ACC Coordinator of Football Officials in January 2007. In his role as Coordinator, he created the league’s gameday operations center, established a variety of high tech systems to respond to coaches and officials, developed a system of evaluations and ratings, oversaw the expansion of the football officiating staff, produced weekly training videos addressing all aspects of football rules, mechanics and philosophy and participated in a variety of NCAA Rules & College Football Officiating (CFO, LLC) committees.
The national search for the next ACC Coordinator of Football Officiating is underway.