Veteran Big 12 referee Scott Campbell hired by the NFL
A few weeks ago, FootballZebras.com reported the NFL had hired a dozen new officials. Normally, a specialty publication breaking this type of news doesn’t garner much attention. For Big 12 fans, it just might.
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FootballZebras.com’s Mark Schultz reported that several officials who were members of Big 12 crews received the call from the NFL to work games in the 2023 season. Three of the names weren’t recognizable, even to the most fervent of Big 12 football fans. One name was notable, and it was a Big 12 referee who Schultz reported will be an umpire in the NFL.
Scott Campbell, a former firefighter/paramedic, is known for his rec-specs glasses and impressive physique that the traditional vertical black and white stripes only accentuate. For Texas fans, he’s known as the head of the crews in charge of several dubious losses in the past few seasons.
Per Stars and Stripes Academy, Campbell joined the conference in 2009 and became a referee in 2015. The first game he acted as referee in that featured the Longhorns was a 2016 game in Austin between Texas and Iowa State. The Longhorns won 27-6 thanks to 24 unanswered second-half points by Charlie Strong’s team.
The next game Campbell officiated involving Texas? The Longhorns’ loss to Kansas in Lawrence that same year.
To be sure, Campbell wasn’t the reason behind Strong and company giving D’Onta Foreman the ball 51 times and losing a game to a woeful Jayhawk squad. It’s also worth mentioning that many of the Longhorn teams Campbell saw from behind the pocket, whether coached by Strong, Tom Herman, or Steve Sarkisian, had more than enough flaws to where blame cannot be placed upon Campbell alone. That’s not just in reference to Campbell, but to any official who has seen Texas in the past decade-plus.
That said, since Campbell became a Big 12 official in 2015, the Longhorns have a 55-44 record. Nothing better than mediocre by any standard, let alone Texas’.
But for games Campbell has officiated involving the Longhorns?
| Opponent | Year | Result |
| at Iowa State | 2017 | Texas 17-7 |
| Oklahoma State | 2017 | Oklahoma State 13-10 (OT) |
| at Oklahoma State | 2018 | Oklahoma State 38-35 |
| Kansas State | 2019 | Texas 27-24 |
| at Texas Tech | 2020 | Texas 63-56 (2OT) |
| vs. Oklahoma | 2021 | Oklahoma 55-48 |
| at West Virginia | 2021 | West Virginia 31-23 |
| Alabama | 2022 | Alabama 20-19 |
That’s a collection of exhilarating games, but the overall Longhorn record of 3-5 sticks out, as does the final game listed.
Texas lost a thriller to then-No. 1 Alabama last season, and one controversial call that cost the Longhorns a possession is ingrained in the minds of UT faithful.
Not only was Crimson Tide quarterback Bryce Young not ruled to have been sacked by T’Vondre Sweat in the end zone, the officials called roughing the passing with targeting on DeMarvion Overshown even though there was little to suggest a foul against Agent Zero.
Following a lengthy review, which included Campbell admitting that the foul of targeting ‘was explained incorrectly to the referee,’ the targeting foul was removed. However, because of that mishap at a crucial juncture of a tied game, the only thing that could have been reviewed was the targeting foul. Campbell and the replay official could not determine whether Young was down and if the Longhorns should have been awarded two points.
It’s easy for UT faithful to say “well if Texas had those two points, then the final score would have been 21-20.” Football doesn’t often work that way, especially when looking at one play in the early stages of the third quarter.
However, Texas did lose an opportunity at an extra possession, which definitely would have altered the game. The Longhorns never received it, and Young eventually led a heroic final drive to set up the game-winning field goal.
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Longhorn fans have long thought the Big 12 has a bias against the Texas football team, a notion that stands in stark contrast to beliefs from the league’s other nine members that the conference goes out of its way to assist Texas via officiating. The truth, as usual, is most likely in the middle, with officials not having any sort of established bias either way so as not to sully the competition on the field.
Come 2024, Texas will play contests called by a new batch of referees and officials, who SEC fans likely swear have an allegiance or show bias to a particular team.
Until then, Big 12 crews will oversee most Texas games in 2023. But Campbell won’t be one of the officials working them. He’ll be working on Sundays, not Saturdays.
