5GetsYou1

This boils my blood anytime I see it, I'll never understand what is cool about dropping the ball behind you. The ball became dead in the end zone with no possession, 1st & 10 B from the B20.

After an awarded fair catch, the ball can be moved anywhere between the hash marks: "6-5-4 The captain may choose to free kick or snap anywhere between the hash marks: a. on the yard line through the spot of the catch when a fair catch is made; b. through the spot of interference, when a fair catch is awarded; or c. at the succeeding spot when the distance penalty for kick-catch interference is accepted following an awarded fair catch and the down is not replayed These choices remain if a dead-ball foul occurs prior to the next down, or a foul or an inadvertent whistle occurs during the next down and the down is replayed." This part can make this situation extremely complicated, if there is a fair catch, the offense runs a play and the defense commits a foul that makes the down replayed, the offense can accept the penalty and then choose to move the ball AND attempt a free kick for a field goal.

Count defense, observe formation, find pre-snap keys, consider how your keys change with motion, remember what keys did last play, play clock.

A few other things to consider: have they done this all night? Does the offense do this every snap or just on punts?

Replace "regular season finale" with Round 1 and "makes the playoffs" with Round 2 and it is the exact same thing, except now the players that lasted the season get to play one more game.

There was a C. Leather play of this exact scenario: Play #58 4th and 12 from the B-35 yard line. Quarterback A1 throws a pass which is possessed simultaneously by A2 and B2 at the B-25 yard line. A2 and B2 continue to move down the field while continuing to battle for possession of the ball. (a) the ball is fumbled on the B-20 yard line and recovered by B3. (b) the players both fall to the ground at the B-20 yard line still both in possession of the ball. Ruling? Ruling: A ball that is possessed simultaneously is awarded to the offense. The ball is dead at the spot of the simultaneous possession. In this case that yard line is the B-25. This is short of the line to gain. In both (a) and (b), it will be 1st and 10 for B from the B-25 yard line. 7-5-4

I really don't understand the narrative of making the regular season mean something. When's the last time you stepped on a football field? No player is going into a game thinking, "It doesn't really matter, we make the playoffs either way."

Just curious, is this an argument to qualify for the tournament or just for it to be seeded? There seems to be a bit of both sentiments in the comments. I think seeding is probably a good idea, but all teams should still participate. Keep in mind several conferences that cover 3 different classes, a 1A school might be getting beat up by bigger schools and then make a run in the tournament.

I actually just covered substitutions for pregame. Only a player can commit an encroachment, at this point he is a substitute which classifies the illegal substitution.

🤷‍♂️ Two more emails just came though needing crews at the end of the month, start canceling I guess.

Just that, I didn't mean BAD officiating, but it's obvious schools are going to have to take what they can get. That would be a good question for an AD, would you rather have a patch crew or cancel the game?

My crew recently picked up a Saturday game, which one of our members won't be able to be at. After the work week, maybe some underclass games, being gone all of Friday, it's hard to be away from family on Saturday as well. I think it is a temporary fix, not a long term solution. I think the patch crews are going to have to get their development in, better to have subpar officiating than no game at all, IMO.

I saw a new one on Friday, the team had 4 storage totes with balls and towels in them for each quarter. Pretty good thinking!

This is where the double edge sword of the conversation comes in. For playoff selection and advancement, in theory, you'd want the most qualified and eligible crews to advance.

My first year of officiating this was the #1 complaint I heard at association meetings, and it made me think, "Why even bother trying to get to state? I'd rather just work towards making the jump to college instead." IMO, the system needs to move away from crews/individuals being grandfathered in with a 50 and work more towards evaluating, especially in the playoffs.

This isn't a bad idea to both make sure coaches vote and actually remember which crew they are voting for. However, I would open that up beyond three days to let some emotions settle. We've had a case in the past where the coach had some concerns with our performance, both mechanically and judgmentally. After some correspondence our crew chief was able to explain to him what we had done correctly and what we had honestly missed. I believe this back and forth got us another point from this coach.

Absolutely Legal. The ball did not cross the expanded neutral zone, K still has the option to run, kick or pass.

We had a similar situation Friday night. Team A gains a first down, after the play, taunting on A. Team B's coach wanted to know why it wasn't 1st and 25.

This is a great answer, just wanted to add if the player has a chance to make it off before the snap we will announce over the radio that he has to get off so the wing official knows if he doesn't it's illegal. You might be surprised how many times the 11th player runs off the field thinking he makes 12 and the defense plays with 10.

This is actually encroachment on the kicking team, dead ball foul. The play should have been blown dead immediately, so B doesn't have the option to decline the penalty and keep the ball.

In my opinion, definitely illegal: RULE 1-5-3: ART. 3 . . . Illegal Equipment. No player shall participate while wearing illegal equipment. This applies to any equipment, which in the opinion of the umpire is dangerous, confusing or inappropriate. Illegal equipment shall always include but is not limited to:

(I was agreeing with you, unless I'm misunderstanding several posts)

Thank you. I lurk on several different conference threads and this one is by far the worst with, "If Team A scored X on Team B, then how do you expect Team C to only score X on Team B!?"

I'm not sure how true it is, but I received an email saying about 15% of crews didn't get an assignment this year. I spoke with a Referee that didn't get assigned this year, his crew made it to the second round last year. For what it's worth, they were observed this year and got high marks. This year wasn't supposed to count against points for next year, right?

I think the moral of this situation is that you have to call safety fouls regardless if it impacted the play or not. If the K player was defenseless and R took a shot, absolutely throw the flag. If R's coach saw that happen to his player, he'd want the foul.