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Penn State

Longtime Big Ten referee John O'Neill retires, moves into a role with the NFL, report says

Greg Pickelby: Greg Pickel09/01/22GregPickel
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Referee John O'Neill checks out a replay during the Big Ten Conference college football game between the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Indiana Hoosiers on October 20, 2018, at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

John O’Neill will not officiate today’s Penn State-Purdue game. In fact, the longtime face of the Big Ten referee contingent will not be the head official for any games this fall.

Football Zebras, which follows the refereeing industry, reported on Thursday that O’Neill has retired, citing sources. Blue-White Illustrated has confirmed the news. Per Football Zebras, O’Neill has moved into a role with the NFL as a referee position coach.

According to his LinkedIn page, O’Neill joined the Big Ten as a referee in 2002. He also served as the vice president of the Big Ten Football Officials Association for a year and was its president for two years. The Chicago native spent 19 years with the conference.

Controversy followed O’Neill at times in the Big Ten

Penn State and Big Ten fans know O’Neill well. It should go without saying that his longevity in the conference means he did more right than wrong. However, it also is well known that controversy at times followed the longtime referee.

The list of grievances Penn State fans, in particular, have with O’Neill is long. He was the head referee in 2014 when a series of calls were questioned in a 31-24 Ohio State win over the Lions. A Buckeyes interception that appeared to hit the ground was not overturned due to a replay malfunction.

That wasn’t O’Neill’s fault. But, a similar situation occurred a few years later. Then Penn State tight end Pat Freiermuth was awarded a touchdown at Iowa in 2019. But, after a long review, O’Neill announced that the call was overturned. In that instance, it was replay official Tom Kissinger who made the call. But, O’Neill received the scorn of Penn State fans anyway. One other instance where O’Neill and Penn State fans disagreed came in 2012, when Matt Lehman appeared to clearly cross the goal line for a touchdown at Nebraska. However, one wasn’t awarded upon review.

Penn State isn’t the only school that ran into issues with O’Neill, however. Nearly 19,000 fans signed a Change.org petition requesting that the Big Ten fire O’Neill. And, it wasn’t previously a college football Saturday without fans taking to social media with hopes that O’Neill’s crew didn’t have their game.

Alas, as we said above, it cannot be ignored that O’Neill was both the face of Big Ten officiating and almost certainly got more right than he did wrong. But, his retirement will not go unnoticed by fans across the conference as a new season, and his next chapter, begin.

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