Life of a SEC referee

I work with a guy that officiates division 2 and 3 college football. The guy is a retired warrant officer and currently a project manager for the government in aviation. Seems to be a rather stand up dude. Big Kentucky fan. He doesn’t put in the time it seems like these guys are required to but he travels all over the south and Midwest to officiate. He gets evaluated and trained but mostly it’s by phone and computer.

I asked him why he hasn’t made the step to big time and put it quite frankly.
The good ole boy system is alive and well in big time officiating. Told me that you basically have to know someone to get in Division 1 officiating and if you don’t, you can forget about it. He spoke like you had to nearly suck someone’s dick to get where those guys are on saturdays in the SEC.