JustRules

If they want to do something they can shorten the 2nd quarter to 2 minutes or some other length.

Neither have I but I know it exists. It was referenced briefly in a different email sent by our football chair.

That may have been the game that triggered an email from the IHSAA to officials to NOT allow a running clock unless it meets the state's mercy rule. The quarter may be shortened (i.e. 12 minutes to 8 minutes) by no running clock in the first half.

Correct. They get the option to have the clock start on the snap if it would otherwise start on the RFP by rule. But they don't have the other option. They can't choose to have it start on the RFP if by rule it would have started on the snap.

You have the ability to start and stop the clock any time you wish if you feel a team is consuming or conserving time illegally. It's not unlike accidentally stopping the clock when you think there is a turnover and starting it again when you realize the offense still has it. You start the game clock without making the ball ready for play. You could also rely on the God rule to apply what you feel is equitable to address situations not covered specifically in the rules. Several other people said they would use that. The majority definitely felt the offense should not benefit in a time aspect by committing a foul that stops the clock.

Had a discussion with some officials on a very similar play. Absent the foul there is no way A would have been able to snap the ball. They shouldn't get that option because they fouled. I would start the game clock but not make the ball ready for play (U stay over the ball) and let the game clock run out.

Some states do this. Not sure about Illinois. In some cases yes and some cases no. Depends on the state or region. It could be a difficult night physically to try to do both. Exhaustion can lead to poor mechanics and poor judgement so you have to be careful with that. I'll have 5-6 miles of steps for most high school games.

I would argue one of the wings does have a key on the back. There is nothing you have to watch at the snap with as a key because he's not on a defender. But one of the wings will have to keep him in their periphery as the play develops. If it was his key to begin with he needs to watch him once he's in an area with opponents and 5 yards downfield would definitely be his area. The B would be very unlikely to be watching him. Let's say we have a balanced formation. The B has the widest receiver on the LJ side and the LJ has #2 and the back. The H has both receivers on his side. Pay special attention to any of your keys who are pressed but if no one is pressed then watch your T to read run/pass. If you read pass stay with the T for at least a second in case he gets beat off the snap, especially if you are on the R side because he's starting with the opposite T. As the routes develop the wings and BJ go to zone. If the LJ had the back as his key, he should stay with him to this point. If both of the receivers on his side stay in then the H will have to pick him up but he doesn't necessarily know that. If one or of the receivers stay in his focus will probably be there and the back in the middle would go undetected. If both stay in then nobody is deep and the back judge COULD pick up the back in the middle. This all shows the complexity of covering eligible receivers with only a 5-man crew. You have 3 guys watching 5 players and they all have to be on the same page regarding zones and switches. It's not hard once you have experience doing it, but you still may miss something because a different receiver draws your attention even for a second.

NCAA enforcement would be the same, but I believe NFL is different. I believe a dead ball personal foul on 4th down still extends that drive with a first down.

Same assigner from same pool

This was a game at Shortridge, and I believe many of the IPS school games are assigned. The assigner has a group of officials he uses and he puts them on games each week. They aren't set crews, but I'm not sure to what extent he tries to keep people together. Based on what I'm reading here he either had 3 guys not show or was unable to find 3 guys to work it. There was not an APB put out for a crew this week and I understand there were a couple crews not working so there were officials available. They may not have been convenient to this game site though.

The definitions of player, substitute and replaced player are all key to this rule. Do you have any example of where this could happen but not be a foul? When does that substitute become a player?

That's not the NCAA's issue. It's the issue of the professional leagues dumped in the laps of the NCAA. They have been able to leverage it to generate revenue to fund all their other sports which is great. But if you know anyone who actually works for the NCAA you know they are generally under paid compared to what they could make elsewhere. The schools are similar where the football and basketball programs often underwrite the costs for swimming and soccer and lacrosse as those sports generate very little revenue. The Fortnite guy won money because he won a Fortnite tournament. If these players want to make money in their sports go play in Europe or the D-league for basketball. Football is more difficult because there are essentially no options. I understand where allowing players to earn money related to their likeness comes from. I just think it opens up a huge can of worms that will essentially kills college sports in general. Since 95% of college athletes don't play men's basketball or football I would hate for that to happen.

I've seen it happen at many MIC game I've attended. Many of thesee schools now have rules stating students from schools not participating can't attend without an adult. I was at the MIC game several years ago and a fight broke out in the bleachers below us. We found out after we left it was a group of students from a third school who showed up looking for trouble. I believe it's the same thing at basketball games. It's unfortunate because it makes it difficult for kids who have friends who play for nearby schools from attending.

The issue I think they have to address is schools (or more likely they boosters) use this as a recruiting tool. Come to State U and the local car wash company will pay you $300k/year to be their spokesperson. Is that where we really want college athletics to go? The NCAA is a good model. The NFL and NBA's inability to create a sustainable minor league system like MLB and MLS and NHL and rely on the NCAA to be their minor league is ultimately the root of this.

The crew wasn't 100% certain they had it right on the field so they looked it up when they got to the locker room and confirmed they made a mistake. They contacted Robert immediately so he heard it from them first. He had already assigned them to a second round sectional game so they got to work that, but the sectional final assignment they were supposed to get was removed. They would have completely understood if it cost them a second round game too. That is integrity and proof that even good officials can make big mistakes. We don't have many OT games and when we do we rarely start anywhere but the 10. I think I can still count on one hand the number of OT games I've worked in almost 20 years. That's not an excuse but it helps to understand. Mistakes are the greatest teachers.

Who said the other students were from Avon? Just because they were playing Avon doesn't mean it involved their students. I've attended games at MIC schools where students from a third school were there and caused problems. These are teenagers. They do stupid stuff just like we did when we were teenagers.

The former Delphi coach? He told us about a play he planned to run which was a fake punt. His punter would take the snap and throw a high pass downfield with the intent of drawing a DPI flag against the "return" team player blocking the gunner thinking it was a punt. He even told our line judge before the play he was doing to do it. He was livid we didn't have a flag as the pass landed incomplete. Unfrotunately his gunner outran the defender and was wide open with no contact. Just because you planned on the defender making contact doesn't mean they will. The philosophy on that play though is it needs to be obvious it's a pass before you'll flag DPI. NCAA has gone so far to make it an exception to the DPI rule in this situation.

We had the same situation Friday night. I know once the Mercy Rule went into effect the clock doesn't stop until after the try. I just wasn't sure if the TD itself creates the 35+ point differential if that clock should keep running through the try. Or if it would start on the succeeding kickoff. In our case the game clock operator kept it running and nobody said anything.

Nope. You got it. There are some direct communications (certification clinics, online rules interpretations, playoff application reminders, online training), but things like clarifications and weekly updates if they send them always go through the association chairs. They ask for communications and feedback to come back that way as well. There are also instances where someone asks Robert for a rule interpretation or clarification and he only replies back to that crew. You only hear about it through word of mouth. One example I heard last week was in regards to bandanas hanging out of the back of a helmet. This is very clearly not allowed in NFHS and NCAA, but when Robert was asked about it he apparently told this person it was legal. He's wrong but when he's the boss he's right. But not everyone got that response. Being on top of those things is hard when it's your full time responsibility. But officials are a very small part of his responsibilities. I will say he at least makes an effort. It would be nice to have an assistant commissioner for officials, but I don't see it happening any time soon.

It's only hurdling of the only thing touching the ground for the opponent is his feet. If his knee was on the ground it shouldn't have been hurdling. But it's a safety issue so if it was close or hard to tell the official would be correct to err on the side of safety. Hurdling is legal in NCAA and NFL so you could have seen it. Plus I see videos each year from around the country where it happens and the crew somehow misses it.

Interesting data. Thanks for sharing. 19 of the 30 incorrect were predicted to be within 1 score so I wouldn't consider them to be huge upsets. 24 were within 11 points which is still fairly close. The average was 8 points. The biggest upsets were Greenwood over Martinsville by 13 and Traders Point over Shortridge by 51 (both were predicted by 21 the other way). Bremen was predicted to win by 18 but lost by 23.The average predicted difference on the games that were correct was 16. There were 10 that were 21 points so 10 of the 12 at that level were correct. 26 of the 121 (21%) were predicted to be more than 21 points different. All but 1 of them were more than 21 (Ev Memorial over Ev North by 12). In fact, they were all 29 or more with 19 of them being more than 35 points. The average spread was 45 points. I counted 51 total games that ended up with a different of 35 points or more so there was a running clock at some point of the second half. 6 of them had a predicted difference of 7 points or less.

The rule allowing for shortening the period allows for making the period 8 minutes or 10 minutes rather than 12 minutes. It didn't allow for alternate timing rules. There was no actual rule support for how we had running clocks previously. It was just allowed by the IHSAA to help resolve blow-out games quicker. When they came up with the Mercy Rule they said no more "unofficial" running clocks like we had previously. It's my understanding that's what Robert's clarification from last week was (our football chair never forwarded it to us so I haven't seen it). The new Mercy Rule is very specific with what we can do and when. Running the clock in the 2nd quarter is not allowed. Is it the worst thing in the world to do? Absolutely not? Would I fault a crew and coaches for agreeing to do it? No. But they aren't supposed to do it.

States have the flexibility to use their own OT rules, but the NFHS rule book does have a section for a recommended procedure. Indiana uses that procedure. It appears the only difference on the Ohio procedure is they start on the 20 rather than the 10 and A can start 1st and 10. No matter what happens in the NFHS/Indiana method there is never a line to gain. Everything is always 1st/2nd/3rd/4th and goal. Even if A somehow gets awarded a new series at the B15. It would be first and goal. For example, on the first play they snap the ball over the QB's head and he recovers at the B31. It's now 2nd and goal. On the next play they throw an incomplete pass but B is guilty of roughing the passer. The 15-yard penalty would be enforced from the B31 to the B16 and A would be awarded an automatic first down. But it would be first and goal. Under the Ohio rule normal line to gain rules would apply.

Is it possible they ruled the ball hit out of bounds at the 1 and then hit the pylon? If not they may have incorrectly applied the rule that if a ball touches something out of bounds it's placed at the foremost spot of the ball as it crossed the sideline. For example, let's say it's bounding at an angle toward the sideline. It last touches at the B33, crosses the sideline at the B30 and touches at the B22 (it's a fairly sharp angle). The ball will be spotted at the B30 since that's where it crossed the sideline. It would be really hard for the ball to cross the sideline at the 1 and then hit the pylon. The pylon is considered out of bounds in the end zone and if the ball hit the pylon it should be considered a touchback assuming it's the first thing the ball touched.