JustRules

Travel overall would be much more significant if they went to north/south or statewide seeding top to bottom compared to the current sectional model. For the most part today's sectionals are geographically close.

But the regular season determined who would be in the playoffs in each of those instances. And it gave the Dodgers and Braves the opportunity to have home field advantage. I guarantee that was important to them in late season games. The fact they didn't capitalize on it is a separate discussion. I will agree with the argument MLB and NBA seasons are way too long, but they do play a major factor in who makes the playoffs and seeding.

R can still only be 10-yards from the kick line so they will be 2.5 yards deep in the end zone. The best option for K is to kick it so it rolls dead inside the 5. They can't legally recover, but they would pin R deep. The other option is to kick it out of bounds so R will accept the 5-yard penalty form the previous spot and rekick (can't put it 25 yards beyond the free kick line and they probably wouldn't accept 5 yards in advance of where it went OOB. Then K could try to onside kick it and recover inside the 2.

Completely agree on seeding. I've worked enough sectional championship games that should have been exciting battles that were 42-7 because one team had an advantageous draw. If they get through an upset so be it.

Lots of different ways other states do it. Some use a points system which seems odd and can be manipulated through scheduling somewhat. Another one I know a couple states use is to play the teams in your conference (all in the same class so Indiana could go with sectional) and your conference record determines your qualification and seeding. Put 5A/6A into 4 8-team sectionals rather than 8 4-team sectionals so each team plays 7 sectional games during the season. This leaves 3 non-sectional games you can schedule with traditional or regional rivals. Qualification and seeding is based 100% on your sectional record so you aren't generally hurt by scheduling a tough non-sectional game (could be used for tie-breakers however). Top 4 teams qualify. #1 from Sectional 1 plays #4 from Sectional 2 and so forth so you aren't playing sectional opponents in the first round. You could still have top teams playing each other in the second or third round if they are geographically close. But this is a way to do it and still decide it on the field rather than through computer algorithms or subjective rankings. The drawback for Hoosiers is you get rid of the traditional conferences. You would also have similar complaints to today's sectional assignments.

Bobref will love this but let's imagine the tournament took the top 16 teams only. Think about how big some of those matchups this week and next become. LN and Pike play next week for example and both could be on the bubble for a playoff spot. It would significantly ratchet up the excitement for that game. And Ben Davis-LC and Ben Davis-North Central would have big ramifications on seeding for all teams involved.

He is moving forward slightly before the snap and not set for one second so you could go with illegal motion or illegal shift. Most of the discussion I've seen about this play is unsportsmanlike conduct for making a mockery of the game. But what an amazingly athletic move by the big guy...both the cartwheels and the splits. Coaches...please don't do this. You force us to come up with something and you definitely won't like it.

That's a fair point when distance is involved. But most people who stop attending once they hit their meeting requirement are close in proximity to the meeting location. And many of the people who do attend are only doing it to check a box and not actually looking to get anything out of it.

Most states have been using a mercy rule for many years. It's an indication we are finally in line with the rest of the country.

Our running clock games (3 of 7) have been 1:48, 1:51, and 2:10 (all running at halftime or early in 3rd quarter). Our average for the season is 2:16. The non-running clock games average 2:30. We had a 2:55 with a lot of scoring and passing and penalties as well as several hydration/cramping time outs. I've talked to crews who have had a running clock at some point in every game.

Carmel hosts a JV swim meet every year so their JV swimmers can compete. Swimmers are seeded in the heats from slowest to fastest (heat 1 are the slowest swimmers and heat 4 are the 8 fastest swimmer by seed time). Every event the 8 swimmers in the last heat are always from Carmel. It probably wouldn't be a lot different if the other teams brought their varsity swimmers.

NFL official are paid fairly well but also put in considerable time each week preparing for games. I'm not sure of exact or current numbers, but my understanding was a first year official is paid around $60k per year and a 20-year veteran working referee is making around $200k. As for the rule and changes in season, the rule itself didn't change but the philosophy or application of the rule likely did. I was talking with one of the NFL guys here in Indy and he said they were being told to be much more technical on the backside holding because these are freak athletes and if they aren't held on the back side they could possibly still get to the runner and make a play. I have no idea if that's the philosophy they changed that reduced the number of fouls in week 3, but it's an example of what could easily change during the season. Another example is a hold at or near the tackle. That rarely has an impact on the play and is generally considered a no call. But if the NFL told the officials early to call it they will. If they did that's possibly what could have been pulled back as well. There are probably similar examples to that I"m not privvy to and likely the source of the conversation on the conference call.

I also think it's a double standard. There are a lot of songs we listened to back in the day that were explicit and maybe not so subtle. Pour Some Sugar on Me is one that comes to mind. I'm sure there are many others. Some of the rap and hip hop music is just more direct but is it really any different?

HS varsity most pay $75-$85/game. I"m not sure of sub-varsity since I don't work it any longer but I believe it's $50-$60/game. I do know one conference does double headers on Saturday morning with freshman/JV and they pay $125 to work both games.

This was about 20 years ago so glad to hear the leadership is still similar. The other thing they did well was have a board member on the field for every game to help with the league-specific rules. One challenge of youth football is each league has their own set of rules in addition to the normal HS rules. For example, the LBs couldn't be any closer than 3 yards from the LOS and DL had to line up heads up on the OL (no gaps). The board member addressed those things so the licensed officials could focus on the rules we already knew. If anything got crazy I think the board member would have addressed it, but there were rarely any issues.

The biggest gap we have in 5-man is downfield. Pylons aren't covered well during long plays. Goal line is hard to cover when the ball is snapped between the 10 and 15. FG and tries lose a wing. The C could take the other upright so the wings stay on the LOS, but it would make more sense for the deep officials to take the uprights. On punts you would already have 2 deep officials ready. Free kicks wouldn't be different regardless of C/deep because everyone goes to a spot to start.

If we were to add a 6th official it would make much more sense to put them in the defensive backfield rather than the CJ position. I have never heard of any officials at any level adding the CJ any earlier than the 8th official. The NFL moved the umpire there so they do it with 7. There has been discussions with going to 7 officials for later rounds of the tournament so I know there is at least interest in exploring it. I would love to see us move in that direction.

The rule of thumb is work high school varsity football for 5 years before trying to do college. The reason for that is muscle memory is such a huge part of being good at this. The more you've seen a pulling guard on the edge trying to block a DB without holding or a receiver and defender hand fighting as they run down the field or had to rule on a close catch/no catch on the sideline or a runner breaking the plane of the goal line before his knee touches the better you'll be. But there are definitely exceptions to that rule. As for getting in there is no magic formula, but generally you are doing the following things. First, contact the supervisor of officials for a local D3/NAIA/JC conference and request an application. If you know someone already working in the conference they should be able to help you with that as well. Attend any local clinics or study group meetings in your area as often as you can. This helps you learn more about college officiating and also connect with college officials. Networking and advocacy help play a big part as well. In Indy we have a D2 and D3 official who host a monthly study group in Carmel January - June. A group of D1 officials host a bi-weekly study group at Butler during the season. If you are closer to Chicago I believe they do similar things there. The IFOA hosts a clinic every February for college officials. It's open to anyone interested so you could definitely attend that next year. The study groups are also open to any HS official who wants to learn more. There are also larger clinics all over the country and you could go broke attending as many as you wanted. The Marian clinic is $90 and it's one day. Some of the clinics are multiple days and include scrimmages and cost over $1000. Once you get started with that you work college JV games and scrimmages to get on field experience and work with experienced officials. Every year the local D3 conference has at leas some turnover and hires from the list of applicants who have been doing all the things above. There are examples of officials who have tried for 3 or 4 years and never get that varsity opportunity. There are some working varsity games their second year. Like anything there are multiple factors. The key is to have a mentor who can help you. Geography plays a big role. It helps to be in an area where there are already a lot of college officials. Believe it or not someone in South Bend has a hard time because they aren't in the footprint of any conference. They are surrounded by small college conferences, but they are 4-5 hours form many of the schools in those conferences. There is only 1 B1G official in South Bend and he's the only college official there so there are no study groups. You would have to travel a lot with little or no compensation to break in. It's not impossible but you would have to work a lot harder.

No they will not because they fouled before recovery. The basic spot of that foul would be the previous spot if R accepts it (they obviously would). If the kick was touched by K before going 10 yards R could chose to decline the penalty and R would get the ball at the spot of touching. You said it went well more than 10 yards so that doesn't apply in this example. I only used it to demonstrate there are always many factors that go into a situation like this. And the types of things discussed in those huddles. Usually we are trying to agree on the facts and then applying rules to those facts to make sure we get it right.

Your point about potential schedule conflicts is valid. I have several officiating friends in Illinois and they've never mentioned it. Maybe they get the Friday playoff assignments. Keep in mind very few officials advance in the tournament and Illinois with a qualifying tournament have even fewer who get a playoff game. But that would have nothing to do with advancement in college. We've just had a very good run of guys who have advanced. When I started there was only 1 NFL official in Indiana and maybe 4 or 5 Big Ten officials. Now there are 6 NFL officials in Indiana (most who went through B1G), 5 B1G, 5 MAC, and 5 MVFC officials. Most of that group were HS and/or small college officials when I started. Many of them probably worked your middle school games back in the day. It's very hard to advance past the D3 ranks as spots are more limited and competitive as you move up. The men and women who make it to the D1 or NFL level have put in a lot of time and effort and energy and been scrutinized heavily to even get to that level. Then the level of evaluation once you get there is even higher. Just because they aren't publicly reprimanded doesn't mean they aren't addressed. Some of you have attended the IFOA clinic in June. Our clinicians there usually include these NFL and college officials in addition to the top high school officials around the state. It would be like the state coaches clinic having Mark Nagy, Frank Reich, Mike Tomlin, Jeff Brohm, Urban Meyer, Brian Kelly, Kurt Mallory (ISU), Chris Keevers (UIndy), Mike Leonard (Franklin), and Mark Henninger (Marian) as your presenters every year. We are very blessed.

The interesting part of that is a lot of the freshman/JV games on Saturday have a hard time finding officials because so many are working youth leagues. Do I go work a freshman game and get paid $50-$60 for 90-120 minutes on the field. Or do I work 4 youth league games and get paid $200 for 3-4 hours of work? It definitely goes both ways. I agree moving these games to Saturday has affected both groups in finding officials.

The leagues I worked when I started were pretty good (Brownsburg and HSE) because the leagues didn't tolerate poor behavior from coaches or parents. I did some CYO as well and don't remember that being bad. But when my son played CYO I saw nasty behavior from both coaches and parents. The kids just wanted to play football. Where I saw really bad behavior was rec league soccer and baseball where the officials were often 14-18 year old kids. I was stunned.

We'd love to have you! Contact the IHSAA and take the license exam!

The players didn't want to play for the coach at the time at LN. Good coach but they didn't mesh. They had 50 players that last year he was there. When Mallory took over he had 120 players in the weight room that Spring. There were football players who wanted to play football. They just didn't want to play for the previous coach. There may have been some defection to LC for some players, but I doubt it was more than a handful. Tre Roberson lived in a neighborhood his senior year that feeds into LN based on the garage sign I saw in my neighborhood. No idea if he lived somewhere else to start HS and stayed at LC because of that.

I happen to know the crew working the Shelbyville New Pal game. They are driving from Evansville!! When there was a possibility the game wouldn't be played I expect they weren't heartbroken. Blowouts are the hardest games to work because you have to work harder to concentrate every play. Close games are fun because it's easy to concentrate. And they aren't stressful because you don't care how each play or the game ends. They are just another play.