Referees who officiate football games for the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association get a little help with their jobs from those at the top of their profession.

For nearly three years, several NFL officials who live in the Kansas City area have been reviewing game film and critiquing the job done by officials for the conference of Missouri and Kansas colleges in the hope of improving calls during games.

"There's no question it's really helped us," said Jay DeHardt, who wears the white hat for an MIAA officiating crew. "It was long overdue."

DeHardt, who has been officiating for 33 years, said most of the crews know the three NFL officials who critique them, which helps cut through any politics and alleviates any reservations the officials may have about giving or receiving the critiques.

"It's a privilege having these guys that are both friends and so geographically available to us and are willing to do it," DeHardt said.

Ralph McFillen, commissioner of the MIAA, said George Hayward, Mark Hittner and Tom Stephan, the three NFL officials who help out his conference, all live in the Kansas City area and have some tie to the MIAA. He said the NFL officials do not analyze every conference game, but will look at games from each of the conference's six officiating crews at least once each season. The NFL officials then provide feedback on what they saw on the field and that information is given to the conference officiating crews for review.

Hayward said the critiques usually involve checking to see if the officials are looking and standing in the right places, not necessarily going over each individual call made in a specific game.

"You can be the greatest official in the world, but if you're not standing where you're supposed to be standing, you can't make the calls," he said. "We can see improvement because you get all the crews doing the same thing mechanics-wise and position-wise and that, in turn, is the biggest thing to making the correct call."

The critiques usually are provided before the following week's games, DeHardt said, so often the calls are fresh in the officials' minds. DeHardt said he might also spend up to an hour on the phone discussing the games with one of the NFL officials.

Hayward, who played at an MIAA school and also officiated at conference games in the past, said he was surprised when first approached with the idea.

"I didn't know that at the Division II level that they'd want to get involved that much with officiating," said Hayward, who's entering his 13th season of officiating in the NFL. "It's a credit to them for wanting to improve the officiating and do everything they can to do that. You don't see that happening at the higher levels."

The NFL officials are paid a small fee for their work, McFillen said, but it's really just a token of the conference's appreciation and does not cover the amount of work the NFL officials do for the MIAA.

"These men (the NFL officials) are obviously outstanding and I think we've really found that our officials are very receptive to any comments and constructive criticism they may get because here are people who've been where they are and now they're at the top of their profession," he said.

The conference's coaches also are receptive to the program.

"I think that any time you attempt to upgrade the quality of officiating, it's good," said Mel Tjeerdsma, head football coach at Northwest Missouri State University. "I think that the officiating in our league has been upgraded each year. These guys are out there and they're doing everything they can to get better."

Chuck Broyles, head football coach and athletics director at Pittsburg State University, agreed with Tjeerdsma's assessment. Broyles said that while it's difficult to quantify improvement in officiating -- there are no statistics, and it can be subjective -- the program provides for more open communication between coaches and officials.

"I think it's an excellent program," he said. "I think it's worked for the MIAA."