Shawn Smith is the referee for Super Bowl LX...

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Football Zebras has confirmed that Shawn Smith will be the referee for Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.

This will be Smith’s first on-field Super Bowl assignment. He was the alternate referee for Super Bowls LV and LVIII.

This is Smith’s 11th postseason assignment, including 5 Wild Card Playoffs, 3 Divisional Playoffs and 2 Conference Championships. His first Conference Championship came in his third season — the earliest possible under assignment rules at the time — and he has been assigned to at least one playoff game every year he was eligible. (First-year officials and referees in their first season are ineligible.)

Smith is in his 11th season and 8th as referee.

Smith got started as a Pop Warner official in junior high school, and also officiated flag football at Eastern Michigan University. Smith was recruited to run track and play football at EMU before transferring to Ferris State University. During that time, he began to officiate high school football and skipped over Division III college football straight to Division II.

At the collegiate level, Smith officiated in Conference USA in 2009, the Mid-American Conference from 2009 to 2012 and the Big Ten Conference from 2012 to 2014. He worked at the back judge position during this time, and completed his first full season as a Big Ten referee in 2014, when the NFL came calling for the 2015 season. Smith worked the 2011 Armed Forces Bowl and the 2015 Senior Bowl while a college football official.

The NFL promoted him to the referee position in 2018 after referee Terry McAulay left the NFL to join NBC.

Smith, 54, is a corporate manager for a major health insurer in the Detroit metro area.

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