With championship weekend heating up and the college football regular season reaching its end, all eyes are set on Yulman Stadium. The Tulane Green Wave is ready to host North Texas for their ACC championship game. Both entered the game with a 7-1 record and earned the trip to the title game via tiebreakers against Navy. Now, with excitement heating up, let’s know about the person who’s going to officiate this high-stakes championship game.

Who is the Tulane vs North Texas ACC title game referee?

Kevin Randall is the man behind the night who began officiating in the Mississippi area in 2006. In 2012, his team officiated a Mississippi high school championship game that was broadcast on local television. During the game, he caught the attention of longtime NFL official Jack Vaughn. Vaughn asked Randall why he hadn’t moved to college football, and Randall explained that he didn’t have an idea of how to make that move.

But then, with Vaughn’s guidance, Randall started officiating junior college games in 2013 and then got his real shot at Conference USA in 2015. In that same year, college football brought in the center judge as its eighth official, behind the offensive backfield, near the referee. Now, Randall served as a center judge until 2019, when he was promoted to head referee. Then, ACC came and hit him in 2022. Randall loved his initial officiating days, travelling with his crew, and appreciated the teamwork.

“We would travel together on Fridays, going to high school games,” Kevin Randall said. “As a football official, you are literally the third team out there on the field. I just fell in love with it, working with (my crew members) on Friday nights.”

Before officiating the intense, high-pressure games, Randall used to be a player facing the heat himself. He was a standout quarterback at Starkville High and led the Yellow Jackets to a state championship in 1994. Then, after two years at Mississippi State University, he finished his degree in physical therapy at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.  After that, he came back to Starkville and worked for 14 years as MSU’s on-campus physical therapist.

All of this wouldn’t have been possible without his family’s support, as his wife and daughters backed him up for all the time he spent away from them on weekends. And his family’s respect for the service academics made Randall’s job much more meaningful.

Now, let’s know about how this game affects both teams’ playoff chances.

Tulane vs North Texas playoff chances

Tulane vs. the North Texas playoff winner will have to juggle a bit to get into the playoffs, as the winner of this game doesn’t get an automatic bye. As CFP gives it to the five highest-ranked conference champions, regardless of which league they are from.

But still, based on the current ranking, they will almost make it inside the top 12. All teams in the Big 10, SEC, and Big 12 title games are ranked ahead of Tulane and North Texas, so they will take all three automatic bids.

Now, ACC affects this scene big time. If Virginia beats unranked Duke in the title game, they will earn the spot directly. That would leave an auto spot open for the Tulane vs. North Texas winner. Then there’s JMU, which plays Troy, but even with the win, it’s hard for both teams to surpass Tulane or North Texas.

Now, if Duke wins the ACC, the winner of Tulane and North Texas might rise to the No. 11 seed, which will set the winner up for the first-round game against Ole Miss. So now their entire fate depends on how the ACC championship turns out.

Let’s wait and see who becomes the ultimate winner of the game.