Referee John Higgins Done Officiating College Basketball Games

Long-time official John Higgins will no longer be refereeing college basketball games after accepting a new role on Monday. Higgins was named the new coordinator of the Western Basketball Officiating Consortium.

Higgins’ new job includes recruiting, selecting, developing, evaluating and assigning officials for all games hosted by WBOC conferences (Big Sky, Big West, Mountain West, Pac-12, WAC and WCC).

Higgins will begin his new role starting on June 1 as he steps away from the court.

Love him or hate him, Higgins was one of the best officials in the game. Period. Controlled the game, and didn’t take any shit from coaches. Wasn’t intimidated by environments, either.

This is another hit to CBB officiating – which has lost some really good veteran refs in the… https://t.co/14JuHuZyqL

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) May 22, 2023

“I am honored and excited to have the opportunity to lead men’s basketball officiating for the six conferences in the WBOC and to provide guidance and direction for our leadership team and officiating staff,” Higgins said in a statement. “The Consortium has grown immensely under Bobby Dibler’s tenure, and I look forward to partnering with our officials, coaches and administrators, as well as NCAA national coordinator and former WBOC colleague Chris Rastatter, to further advance our group and make our sport better.”

Higgins officiated games since 1988 on a crazy schedule. Higgins officiated nine of the last 14 Final Fours and two National Championship games during his career. College basketball fans loved to hate Higgins while the coaches enjoyed his way of controlling the games.