In my last 3 jobs I've stated "References provided upon request" and never actually been asked for the references. All these companies had established HR organ

In my last 3 jobs I've stated "References provided upon request" and never actually been asked for the references. All these companies had established HR organizations and processes, and they had the resources to check references if they wanted to. I put a dash in any box that asks for references, current manager, etc in online applications. That being said, if somebody I enjoyed with working with (even if it was 10 years ago) called and asked me to be a reference I'd be happy to do it. I think everybody understands that references are a necessary game that has to be played when hiring. So don't worry about it too much. Reach out to old collages and ask if you can use them as a reference. They're probably not going to be contacted anyway.