Terry McAulay out as American Athletic Conference shifts football officiating oversight model

Terry McAulay will not return as the American Athletic Conference's coordinator of football officiating in 2018 as the conference shifts to a different officiating oversight model, three people familiar with the matter confirmed to USA TODAY Sports.

The people were granted anonymity because the changes, including McAulay's departure, had not yet been announced.

The AAC plans to partner with another conference in its efforts to evaluate and oversee its football officials, two people said, which eliminated the need for McAulay's position.

AAC spokesperson Chuck Sullivan declined to comment Thursday.

McAulay, a veteran NFL official who has spent two decades with the league, had been the only person to serve in the role since the AAC was renamed and reorganized in 2013. He previously filled the same position with its predecessor, the Big East, beginning in 2008.

McAulay — and the league's officiating operation, more broadly — had come under fire from both coaches and fans for some of the controversial endings in the conference in recent years.

In 2016, for example, Tulsa suffered a 38-31 loss to Houston even though the Cougars appeared to have as many as 13 defensive players on the field on a crucial goal-line play inside the final minute. A month later, Memphis requested a formal review of several plays in its 49-42 loss to South Florida, during which a Bulls defensive back appeared to grab the arm of a Tigers receiver in the end zone on fourth down with less than a minute remaining.

This season, after a particularly frustrating stretch, Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo made his feelings about the league's officials known publicly.

"Terry tells me on Monday that (the calls are) wrong. Last week, I turned in three calls and on all three of them, we were right," Niumatalolo told Baltimore Sun Media Group, which first reported McAulay's departure this week. "I’m tired of getting the thing on Monday saying we were right. That doesn’t do us any good.

"I know I’m going to get reprimanded, but I’m tired of this. Nobody holds those guys accountable."

The AAC will not be the first league to link its officiating operation with another Division I conference; An entity called the Collegiate Officiating Consortium, led by retired NFL referee Bill Carollo, currently oversees officiating in the Big Ten, Mid-American and Missouri Valley Conferences.