Edited: 10/11/07

The Intercollegiate Officiating Association was founded in 1991 and began service to its membership in the 1992-93 academic year. The 2007-2008 academic year marks its 16th year of continual service.

It was founded by the athletic administrators of the North Coast Athletic Conference as a means to take control of its officiating needs in football and men’s and women’s basketball. Beyond that, the athletic administrators felt that they could provide an officiating service to their members at a reasonable and fair cost. At the same time, by establishing a cooperative amongst the Conference members and other subscribers, the members believed they could build a first class operation that enhanced the opportunities for current and upcoming collegiate game officials.

The IOA is governed by a Board of Directors, which is composed of men and women athletic administrators of the NCAC. It is an Ohio Corporation. The current president is Larry Scheiderer, Director of Athletics at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. The other board members are: Frank Carr, Director of Athletics at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana; Betsy Mitchell, Director of Athletics at Allegheny College; Vernon Mummert, Director of Athletics at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana and Dennis Collins, Executive Director of the North Coast Athletic Conference in Cleveland, Ohio. Collins is the operational Administrator of the IOA from his office at the NCAC.

Upon its founding in 1991, the IOA listed 23 charter members, all affiliated with the NCAA in Division III and four charter subscribers, affiliated with the NAIA. Currently, the IOA enjoys the membership of 28: the 10 NCAC conference members located in the states of Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania, the 10 Presidents Athletic Conference members in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and eight subscribers, located in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Current members and subscribers are: Allegheny College, Bethany College, Carnegie Mellon University, Case Western Reserve University, Chatham University, Denison University, Earlham College, Franciscan University, Geneva College, Grove City College, Hiram College, Kenyon College, Lake Erie College, Malone College, Oberlin College, Ohio Dominican Univestiy, Ohio Wesleyan University, St. Vincent College, Thiel College, Thomas More College, Urbana University, Wabash College, Walsh University, Washington & Jefferson College, Waynesburg College, Westminster College, Wittenberg University and the College of Wooster.

In its 16-year history, the IOA and its staff of officials have enjoyed outstanding success, and by at least one measure, have been ranked amongst the finest in the USA. Each year, IOA staff officials are selected to work national championship playoff games in both the NCAA and NAIA in the sports of football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball. An IOA crew has worked the national championship game at least once in the last ten years in these sports.

IOA Supervisors of Officials have been very instrumental in maintaining the quality and quantity of the officiating staffs and keeping the performance level high for the member colleges. Current Supervisors of Officials (followed by their tenure with the IOA or NCAC) are: Diane Plas, Women’s Basketball (22 years), Andy Pfaff, Football (11 years) and Tom Toohig, Men’s Basketball (10 years).