Bryan Banks is the referee for the UFL Championship Game

The UFL Championship Game between the St. Louis Battlehawks and the D.C. Defenders will be played on June 14, with Bryan Banks leading the officiating crew for the matchup. Banks, a Big Ten referee and four-year NFL Mackie Development Program official, will lead his UFL crew for the contest.

The UFL does not assign mixed crews to playoff assignments. Steve Strimling, the league coordinator of officials, said that Mike Pereira and Dean Blandino, the duo in charge of officiating and all replay decisions, worked with their staff of supervisors to evaluate each crew.

“Supervisors will pay particular attention to points of emphasis and instructions given on training tapes,” Strimling said. “Has the crew implemented these correctly through the season? The crew that was noticed by the staff that performed the best and demonstrated a hard work ethic was Bryan Banks’ crew. And that’s why they are working this year’s championship game.”

“All our crews did exceptionally well this year,” Strimling continued.

Banks’ crew for the championship game is as follows:

Turner swapped with this crew’s regular season umpire, Chris Snead, due to an availability conflict. Snead worked a conference championship game.

This is Banks’ fourth season officiating in the professional ranks, where he started with the USFL before its merger with the XFL. Banks started in the Mid-American Conference and worked the 2015 MAC Championship game at center judge. He moved to the Big Ten as a center judge and began working occasional games at the referee position before moving to the position full time in 2024. He did not officiate a bowl game last season but was the center judge for the 2023 Sugar Bowl (College Football Playoff semifinal) between Texas and Washington. On the field, he has been a solid official and even became a mini celebrity by showing off his impressive speed in a 2016 Big 10 matchup between Northwestern and Illinois.