Predict conference championship and Super Bowl officials!

[FredFan7]

Championship officials and Super Bowl officials are announced fairly close together, so predict now.

ALL POSITIONS!

[wjl]

CC
R 14 Smith
U 121 King
D 6 Phillips
L 45 Seeman
F 33 Jones
S 125 Hill
B 105 Paganelli

CC
R 34 Blakeman
U 81 Ellison
D 8 McKenzie
L 59 Baynes
F 50 Santi
S 36 Jefferies
B 27 Bell

SB
R 52 Vinovich
U 92 Neale
D 48 Mello
L 9 Perlman
F 97 Hill
S 56 Baynes
B 88 Freeman

[BkSl14812]

I think some officials will be receiving 3 assignments (2 on-field & alternate), as there may be depth & grading issues in a couple of positions. I'll assume the R/U, DJ/SJ, & LJ/FJ pairings remain intact come the Super Bowl.

CC
R-34 U-81 LJ-45 DJ-79 FJ-50 SJ-125 BJ-39
R-1 U-115 LJ-59 DJ-6 FJ-109 SJ-18 BJ-27

SB
R-83 U-77 LJ-101 DJ-113 FJ-97 SJ-95 BJ-88

[pikachunation]

CC crews:
34 115 6 45 33 125 27
14 81 79 59 50 18 105

SB Crew
52 77 113 101 97 56 88
OR
83 124 113 101 97 95 88

[FredFan7]

Get those predictions in soon. Assignments will start trickling out early this week.

[FredFan7]

www.footballzebras.com/2024/01/hochuli-and-vinovich-lead-the-pack-for-super-bowl-lviii-referee-assignment/

[Penn State fan]

Not sure about Conference Championships. I do know that Vinovich for me is the clear SB guy, with Hussey being the second up. Kemp and Hochuli I felt were disappointing.

[russ]

Chiefs @ Ravens (AFC CC):
R- Shawn Smith
U- Barry Anderson
DJ- Jerod Phillips
LJ- Jeff Seeman
SJ- Chad Hill
BJ- Dino Paganelli
FJ- Dyrol Prioleau

Lions @ 49ers (NFC CC):
R- Clete Blakeman
U- Roy Ellison
DJ- Dana McKenzie
LJ- Rusty Baynes
SJ- Anthony Jeffries
BJ- Tony Josselyn
FJ- Aaron Santi

Super Bowl:
R- Bill Vinovich
U- Carl Paganelli
DJ- Patrick Holt
LJ- Tim Podraza
SJ- Allen Baynes
BJ- Brad Freeman
FJ- Tom Hill

[ryguy80]

It feels like Vinovich will be the Super Bowl white hat. I'm guessing the league penalized the SJ on the regular season clock gaffe more than Vinovich and the remainder of the crew.

Blakeman will be one of the conference championship referees...I can't see him not getting a playoff assignment. Going back and forth on Smith or Novak for the other spot.

Sorry, but I didn't want to go through the eligibility gymnastics to figure out the black hats on the crews. I'll leave that for the experts here.

[exhockeyref]

Short on time, so I'll start with refs and fill in others if I can find a few minutes:

Super Bowl - Vinovich (all things considered, he seems the clear leader in the clubhouse)

Conference - Smith / Blakeman

[FredFan7]

Now, just the Super Bowl officials.

[zebrablog]

OK, so we have Shawn Hochuli as an alt in the NFCCG, which we at Football Zebras essentially declaring Vinovich a lock

www.footballzebras.com/2024/01/vinovich-likely-to-be-named-super-bowl-lviii-referee/

[russ]

Jan 22, 2024 23:31:24 GMT -5 zebrablog said:

OK, so we have Shawn Hochuli as an alt in the NFCCG, which we at Football Zebras essentially declaring Vinovich a lock

www.footballzebras.com/2024/01/vinovich-likely-to-be-named-super-bowl-lviii-referee/

Danny Short was a Wild Card alternate so that should wrap up DJ for Patrick Holt as well. The only question seems to be Perlman vs Podraza at LJ. While Podraza did work the NFCCC last season and hasn't yet worked a Super Bowl I do have a hard time believing they would take three guys from the same crew. But you never know.

[BkSl14812]

I agree that Vinovich presumably is working the Super Bowl. I'd be stunned if it wasn't Mark Perlman at LJ, as he has a similar resume to the retiring Tom Hill. Additionally, with Hill & Perlman retiring, I wonder if this might be Vinovich's swan song as well. With two distinguished colleagues retiring plus the mentoring of Alex Moore, who presumably will become a referee (possibly as soon as next season), I could easily see Vinovich transition into becoming a rules analyst for one of the networks covering both football & college basketball.