A fourth Pitt State graduate will be joining ranks of NFL officials in 2020 season
The NFL on Tuesday announced that it was bringing in six new game officials for the 2020 season.
Two have worked in the Big 12 including one who is a Pittsburg State graduate: Joe Blubaugh, who will be a field judge.
The Pitt State alumni magazine noted that Blubaugh is a 1997 grad who has worked as a Big 12 official since 2005. He also was on the officiating crew for the 2017 national championship game between Alabama and Clemson.
Blubaugh started officiating when he arrived at Pitt State.
“I began officiating junior high football and basketball that fall and worked up into the high school ranks. I did a playoff football game when I was a senior at Pitt State,” Blubaugh told the Iola Register in 2009.
Blubaugh was accepted into the NFL’s Officiating Development Program last year.
According to NFL football operations, participants in the program study position-specific film with NFL officials and officiating supervisors, while also reviewing NFL mechanics and analyzing the rules differences between college football and the NFL.
People in the program also attend the league’s preseason officiating clinic, participate in mini-camps and training camps, officiate an NFL preseason game and work one of these following: Senior Bowl, East-West Shrine Game or NFLPA Game.
Of the 39 that took part in the program, just six graduated to the NFL. The other new official with Big 12 experience is down judge Frank LeBlanc.
Blubaugh will be the fourth official in the NFL who graduated from Pittsburg State, which is becoming NFL Officiating U. He is joining down judge Mark Hittner, down judge Tom Stephan and line judge Mark Stewart.
This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 10:57 AM.
