Florida vs. Houston: Officials announced for 2025 national championship

Ahead of Florida vs. Houston in Monday’s national championship, the officiating crew has been revealed. The trio of Ron Groover, Doug Sirmons and Terry Oglesby will be the referees, while Michael Irving will serve as standby.

None of the three officials working Monday’s game were part of the Final Four matchups on Saturday. Irving, however, had the Houston vs. Duke matchup.

Florida took down Auburn in the Final Four in Saturday’s opener to clinch its first national championship appearance since the 2007 title under Billy Donovan. Houston then won a thriller against Duke, putting together a comeback for the ages in the final minutes to stun the Blue Devils and make it to the title game for the first time since 1984.

Florida got Saturday’s Final Four slate started with a come-from-behind victory over Auburn at the Alamodome in San Antonio. The Gators trailed 46-38 at halftime before completely flipping the script out of the break, outscoring the Tigers 41-27 in the second half en route to the 79-73 victory to advance to the national championship.

Clayton led the charge for Florida and had social media abuzz after his huge performance. He had a game-high 34 points on 11-of-18 shooting, including a 5-of-8 showing from three-point distance and some huge shots down the stretch for the Gators.

In the nightcap, Duke took on Houston in a strength-on-strength matchup. The Blue Devils entered the game as the top scoring team in the country while the Cougars were the No. 1 defense in the nation – marking the first time the top two teams in those respective categories faced each other.

Duke was able to gain control in the first half, but Houston didn’t go down easily out of halftime and got within four points heading into the final four minutes of the game. The Cougars didn’t back down, though, and eventually jumped out in front with 19 seconds left after putting together a huge run with multiple swings.

Ultimately, Houston was able to pull away from there and seal the victory after holding Duke scoreless for the final 3:03 of the game. It was quite the way to end the night of Final Four action and, as a result, set up the national championship game.

Florida and Houston will tip off the national championship at 8:50 p.m. ET from The Alamodome. The game will be broadcast on CBS.