JustRules

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.

I've always heard there are more things that can go wrong with a snap to a holder and placing it for a kick than snap to a punter. You also have a lower trajectory since the ball leaves the foot at a lower point and you are also closer to the line of scrimmage. Plus if you are doing this on a long FG your kicker will likely kick it lower. I haven't had one yet, but I waiting for the short kick that roles dead at the B2 yard line and they are shocked when they bring their offense out thinking they get the ball at the 20 when it's the 2.

Great article about the challenges of finding new officials and keeping the ones we get. Sometimes technology isn't a good thing. https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/27000520/a-crisis-mode-all-levels-how-technology-put-officials-tough-spot Yes there is some verbal and occasional physical threats, but overall it's still a great opportunity to stay involved in the game. Please do 2 things if you read the article. First, look at your behavior at games and ask yourself if you are proud of the way you act. Are you part of the problem? Most people aren't. Second are you or anyone you know a good candidate to become an officials. Men/women, old/young, tall/short, skinny/fan, white/black/yellow/brown/red none of that matters. The men and women who officiate these games love doing it. 120 people spent an entire day Saturday at North Central listening to speakers and being taught on the field by some of the best high school, college, and NFL officials in the Midwest because they love it. Another 500 will attend shorter versions of a similar clinic in their area over the next few weeks. 800-900 will put on the stripes in mid-August as the scrimmages start. Come join in the fun!

All in with random draw on who you play and where you play is illogical. Try to present this to anyone outside of Indiana and they will not believe anyone would have a system like that.

The main reason coaches still support the all-in is because they are hoping their 1-8 team will draw the 2-7 team in the sectional and they have a chance to win. They may even be hoping to upset of the 4-5 team in the sectional. It's the one motivational carrot they can give their players during the season to keep them engaged. But if they draw one of the top teams in the sectional they know their season is over. The last regular season game has no purpose. You could argue more of the season would be the same if they started 0-5 and knew they likely wouldn't make a qualifying tournament. Try explaining this process to someone from another state and they will not believe you. If this really was a good system at least one other state would follow suit. Many of those states have more school but many have fewer. That's a non-issue. The current system does accomplish the goal of crowning a worthy state champion, but the way it gets there is the most illogical system.

This rule change is still creating confusion. I had another coach say they can now legally put two players in "no-man's land". This is the unofficial name of the space occupied by a player if they aren't legally a back or a lineman. That is not true. Definitions are critical here. In simple terms, a lineman is any player breaking the plan of the waist of the snapper. This includes the wide out next to the sideline. Backs are any player not breaking the plane of the nearest lineman (using the definition from the previous sentence). Let's say the tackle is deep but still legal because he's breaking the waist of the snapper. You then have a slot guy who is breaking the tackle's waist but he's not breaking the waist of the snapper. This player by definition is not a back because of his proximity to the tackle who is on the line, but he's not a lineman because of his proximity to the snapper. That is unofficially called no-man's land. Having a player in this space is a foul for illegal formation. It's very rarely if ever called, because it's obvious to most everyone he's trying to be a back. If he's supposed to be on the line but far enough to be behind the snapper you'll only have 6 on the line and that was a foul previously. If you have 11 players on offense it would still be a foul now because you would have more than 4 backs. To make this really simple, what this rule change did was remove the possibility of a team committing a foul because they only have 9 or 10 players on the field (likely a punt, try or FG) and 4 of them line up as backs. This left only 5 or 6 on the line and a foul by the offense even though they put themselves at a disadvantage by being short players. It's also easier to count 4 in the backfield than 7 on the line. That is the only impact. The reason the rule states you are still required to have 5 on the line is because the next rule mentions you need at least 5 players numbered 50-79 on the line. This statement in the rule is unnecessary as it's' already covered, but it's creating a lot of confusion with coaches and some officials.

I've always understood the reason for the rule was to prevent a coach from stacking his JV game with varsity players or limiting participation by the non-varsity players by letting the varsity play their quarters. That's why someone who plays 3 or 4 quarters in a varsity game can only play 4 total quarters

Because it's all perspective. Most people in Indiana are used to driving 20-30 minutes to get to most schools where their team plays. Where I grew up our closest conference rival was 2 hours away! A couple were 3 hours. When post season started the #4 team from the west traveled to the #1 team from the east and vice versa. This resulted in some 5-6 hour drives for a playoff game. Depending on who won you could travel the next week also. As athletes we thought it was pretty cool to get out of school and ride a charter bus to every event!

Other instances would be after a punt or any other change of possession or a runner going out of bounds. The clock will continue to run during those times as I understand the rule. Most states include COP in their mercy rule, but it's not listed here. The acronym is often TIPS (time outs, injury, possession, score). It's not as efficient as a pure running clock but it will still reduce the number of plays and get everyone out of there at least 15-20 minutes quicker. When a game time is only 2:15 on average anyway that's a pretty significant cut especially the second half (40 minutes instead of 60 minutes is a 33% reduction).

If they got 2 points they would STAY in 5A. I believe that means if they won a sectional final in both years or a regional final in 1 year they would stay. That's pretty competitive for that leve.

Yes there will but they'll get there faster. If the coaches didn't want to have a running clock the second half of those games could still take 60-90 minutes. Now they'll take 30-45 minutes. It usually took a 45-0 halftime to have a running clock. Now if the game ends up 42-7 early in the 4th quarter the rest of the game will go quicker. This still gives the backups a chance at plays on a varsity field, but it will minimize the number of plays and thus injury exposure.

Glad we finally have a mercy rule although this will make some of the games longer. With the previous allowance we had a couple 2nd halves that took 25 minutes because the clock didn't stop for anything. With this mercy rule it will stop for time outs, scores or injuries. There are more games though that will result in a running clock because of this so overall it's a good change.

Our school district has a robotics team attending the World Robotics competition in Detroit this weekend. They left yesterday so will miss 3 days of school this week. They missed a day twice in March/April already for a total of 5 missed days. Granted the competition is within the 300 mile range, but they are competing against teams from all over the world. I know they are outside the scope of the IHSAA but the same schools that make up the sports rule have no problem allowing these kids to miss school. Same with marching band competitions. I agree this should be a local issue and the IHSAA membership should approve this change.

As I understand it, scout video still belongs to the team who originally uploaded. They aren't creating new instances of those files when they are exchanged. The core video still exists. Your version just has layers over it that allow you to view it, add your own telestrations, etc. I would be surprised if scount video counts toward this limit. Definitely check with Hudl. VAR's promotional videos tout them as server based rather than internet based. It sounds like they are assuming only one coach is using it on his laptop. What if all coaches want to access it? How can players access and review? How can they create highlight videos? If it's server based you need to be connected to the server in order to view it. The internet is nothing more than a series of shared servers. I think the VAR guys have a great analytics tool but they either don't understand how others will be using it or they are glossing over it hoping you won't notice and buy their service. The exchange part does send the video to the team with Hudl, but they now have to download it from your Google Drive (time consuming) and then upload it to their Hudl account (time consuming). Good luck with that. Like them or love them, Hudl has created a very efficient system for video sharing. Jimmy makes great points above regarding data storage. I also work in IT and highly recommend teams keep any practice or game video they want in the future offline. Use Hudl for 3-4 years worth of game video, current season practice video, and any scout video (assuming it won't count against you because the video itself isn't stored on your account). If you buy something like VAR you are doing it for your own analytics purposes if that's worth the additional cost to you.