JustRules

All 100% true statements. It's going to have to be obviously flagrant or automatic before I'm going to eject a player though. They only get 9 games and to effectively take away 2 of those games is significant.

A good example of officiating WITH the rule book and not BY the rule book. You are essentially using the God rule to apply a false start here. If you let this go you'll like end with too many crazy results. You'll be much better off killing this, enforcing the penalty and moving forward.

Generally true but it's not that the ground can't cause the fumble (it can as pointed out by SoIndRef), it's that the runner is down when anything but his hand or foot is touching the ground. You can't fumble a dead ball. I wonder if the ball was coming loose before he hit the ground and it popped away from him when he hit the ground. Or the official was just blatantly wrong. I'm definitely thinking he shouldn't use those words. He should be more specific because generally if what he said happened did happen the runner would have been down. If it was the correct call it's likely one of the two scenarios mentioned above. That's what he should have told the coach.

Targeting is not an automatic ejection in high school. It has be deemed flagrant to be an ejection and those are rare. The IFOA has no authority over anything either way so sending video to them will at best get you a different opinion or supporting opinion (most likely only from the crew) that isn't any more than that. If targeting was not called the IHSAA would not consider an ejection and suspension if it wasn't called on the field.

It's one of those things where it may not meet the exact definition of a false start, but nothing good is going to come of it so you may be better off killing it and calling it a false start. It's different than a player going in motion toward the the line of scrimmage or an illegal shift because everyone didn't get reset after moving. This would definitely be a live ball foul for something (illegal shift because all 11 players weren't set prior to the snap...illegal sub only if he came in right before the snap) so just kill it and prevent anything else more stupid from happening. Use the God rule if anyone questions what you did.

A good friend of mine taught me this one. Some calls aren't right or wrong. They are just calls. The person making the ball is using his/her best judgement at the time with no bias on the outcome. This seemed a little quick to be progress, but I agree it's supportable.

That was unofficially the rule in the past. If both coaches agreed to any kind of running clock at any point we would grant it. The problem is some coaches refused to do it and collectively the coaches in the state didn't feel that was a good rule. They have been trying to agree on a plan for several years and finally found something they could agree on. I think it's a good change.

If they are going to do that they had better expect you to play full speed as well and block your defense. That's why I don't tell the defense to let up in that situation. I just tell people to be smart and that applies to both sides. If the QB drops the ball or mishandles the snap it's a free ball.

In that situation it's a foul if targeting is involved or any other personal foul (i.e. facemask, tripping). The blindside block rule wouldn't apply to them.

if they did the option without special teams, the varsity is only supposed to play the first three groups (37 total plays each side) and "reserves" are supposed to play the last two groups (16 total plays). 99% of the scrimmages probably use that option.

I ignore it too. Just like to point it out occasionally so everyone knows.

That rule has existed for at least the last 20 years so well before any current turf field was installed. It's just been largely ignored by everyone..

Looks wonderful. The field is in violation of NFHS rules though. They require a shadow line wherever a logo covers up one of the 5-yard lines like the 50 in this picture. The reason is for measurements. We need something to use as reference for the clip when the chains are brought out. Fortunately you rarely ever have to measure on turf fields so it's a non-issue to most officials. If we measure we just need to make sure the ball is spotted outside the logo. Very few fields actually have this done.

That's fine, but he needs to communicate it out so everyone is aware of it. I'm fine with the procedure. The one thing I will add is that if a team does say they are going to take a knee and the game is still in doubt (i.e. within 8 points or maybe 16 with more than a minute left) the OL still needs to be ready to block because it's still a live ball and if the offense botches the snap the defense should have an opportunity to recover it. A good rule change would be to match NCAA and a fake kneel down is treated as a kneel down and the play is dead. No foul or "treat as IW", just dead ball.

Something like that with regional assigners are how most states do it. The assigners are often the local associations and those associations contract with schools/conferences. That's what happens in Florida where the dispute you referenced earlier is happening. Their issue is the state caps all officials pay at $65 per official. But the local associations are able to negotiate "travel fees" that often add $10-$15 per official. They were protesting the state setting a maximum even though the schools could easily increase the travel fee so the state cap really isn't limiting. I think some kind of assigning system would be better. We are booked out through 2023 and most of 2024. That's crazy! I have no idea if any of us will be officiating in 2024. But we need to get games when they become available. Each week there are schools double booked and crews that disband and don't notify the schools. It's only going to be worse as the shortage gets worse. There is a different level of politics involved with assigning but at least everyone will know where they are week to week and schools won't have to worry about a contracted crew disbanding or a crew won't have worry about finding out about a double booked game.

Several great options out there. Tim Keifer and Bill LeMonnier host a weekly study group at https://mibtonline.com/ This forum discusses rules and plays: http://www.refstripes.com/forum/index.php This one as well but it's not very active: https://forum.officiating.com/football/

I believe the scrimmage rules allow for up to 2 coaches to be on the field. We've never strictly enforced that because it's a learning opportunity for everyone. Our coaches stayed on the sideline last night because they wanted to practice that, but they were two very good teams historically.

That second situation is one that is often discussed on officiating forums, clinics and meetings to help understand the rule. I don't know that it has ever actually happened. I did have a game once where we pregamed a punt getting blocked, remaining behind the NZ, and being recovered by the kicker who kicks it again. This is a legal kick. In that game a punt was blocked, the kicker recovered it and I heard a coach scream on the sideline, "kick it again!" He wasn't able to get it off, but it would have been crazy to see it after discussing it in pregame. I agree with Bob on both his answers.

That's an issue with the association and not the iHSAA. You could still put together really good content in June, but you said the primary issue: "to get them out of the way." That's not why they exist. They exist because they are the primary training mechanism from the IHSAA. They provide very little training and rely on the associations to do it. If the associations aren't doing an adequate job then it's on their members to improve them. I attend IOA meetings and we'll have anywhere from 100 to 200 officials early the season (first meeting was last week and they'll go through the end of September) but only 30-40 at the end of the season. The content is pretty decent, but I know we still have guys who only attend so they get credit for playoff rating. Ultimately I think those complaining about having to go to meetings will do it if the content is really good or not. Other states have a full time director of officiating for the state or a structure for training officials through the state throughout the year. I think the IFOA could possibly do this but finding someone who has time to do it is a challenge. The IHSAA needs to approve anything before it's published so it would need to be done fairly early in the week. I use a lot of the videos produced by other states as well and agree they are good. Some use local interpretations so you have to know when not to apply those (i.e. Georgia doesn't allow low blocks by linemen in a 2-point stance regardless of starting location when QB is in shot gun).

It wasn't that long ago all 8 meetings had to be in person. They tried splitting it 4 and 4 because they knew many of the smaller associations were delivering little or no content other than 10 guys sitting around a bar bitching about their game the previous week. The IHSAA realized it was a lot of work to produce those videos (largely because they have 0 staff dedicated to officiating like the other states mentioned in one of the texts) and they scrambled to put something together at the last minute. They cut back to 2 videos and even those are only 5-10 minutes each. The IHSAA allows us to use the clinic as one of the meetings as well so it ends up only being 5 in person meetings. The guys who show up for their 5/6 and then stop coming to me aren't doing this for the right reasons. If you don't like the content of your meetings get involved and make them better. These are the same guys who complain about not advancing yet they want to do the bare minimum to get on the field every Friday night. They aren't following up with schools to get Hudl video. They aren't doing adequate pre-games to prepare. The crews advancing are leading those meetings and organizing the clinics and mentoring young officials and doing video review. Those things don't directly affect playoff advancement but the attitude and approach may be a contributor.

There is no way for the iHSAA or IFCA to know if we are 6 crews short to cover Friday nights. We haven't started the process to apply for the tournament. There will be crews who don't apply for the tournament so even that number wouldn't tell us how many crews there are for the regular season. The IHSAA would know how many individual officials are licensed and could be basing any concern over a reduction in the number of licensed officials. Since you can be licensed in 3 sports for one registration fee some people will pick multiple sports even if they don't work it. There are also some licensed officials who don't work varsity games or a full season of varsity. All that being said the shortage of officials is getting worse and not better. The IHSAA and officials associations have been very aggressive in recruiting new officials but they aren't able to keep up with the reduction. Abuse from coaches and fans isn't the only factor but it's definitely a key factor. I would guess it's worse at the lower levels than high school, but it's not a bad idea for coaches to improve their behavior on the sideline. Communication on both sides is important. We are in this together and should be working together not against each other. If someone does step away for reasons other than job changes, injury. or age there is likely another issue but poor sportsmanship only exacerbates it. If someone is struggling balancing work, family, and football and they are fed up with abuse from coaches or fans, they may blame that abuse, but it's just an aggravator. If you love doing this and know you are doing a good job any screaming won't affect you.

One thing to counter the "private schools have an unfair advantage" is not every private school dominates. It's really only a handful of them. The ultimate private schools (Culver Military Academy and Park Tudor) don't dominate in many sports, and they recruit all over the country. Their emphasis on sports is different than other private schools too. That's why a blanket policy for all private schools (i.e. multiplier) doesn't make sense. I think the Success Factor is the best solution I've seen. It could possibly be tweaked, but in general it works because it applies to everyone equally and doesn't unnecessarily punish private schools that don't perform as well. I agree private schools generally do have an advantage because they have a high percentage of active students in activities including sports. The make-up of the student bodies are very different. But that doesn't mean they will all automatically be better. We also have to accept the fact no system will be perfect and the ultimate goal is competition, teamwork, and goal setting. Generally the players don't care. They just want to play and compete and some will be seeking college scholarships. This really is an adult problem.

This doesn't entirely surprise me. I would have expected some higher rate of CTE of those who played football than that who didn't. But not a significant difference. The biggest risk is with those who played least through college and definitely NFL. They are bigger and hit harder. They have much longer seasons. And they played for a much longer period of time.

As others have said licensed at 18 but seek opportunities for him to work youth leagues if they allow it when he's ready. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

The intent of the game is probably to recognize top players, coaches and players get together for a friendly competition, and overall a fun time. Whether or not the absolute best players are there or it gets high media coverage/forum buzz is probably not on the list of concerns for the iFCA. I saw articles posted so it was at least covered. The full crowd is also encouraging. Great job IFCA and everyone who participated.