[JRutledge]

Here is the additional fact. We do not play girls and boys basketball games in the same place as the norm. Often just in the Chicago area and surrounding suburbs, they play a Freshman A & B games (two games) in one gym and a Sophomore (usually the prelim game) before the varsity. So it is not unusual to have 7 officials assigned to one site on any given night. Then you might have 8 different sites or games going on in a particular conference. So that is if everyone one in the conference is playing (16 team model) then that means you have 56 officials assigned on any given night for just one gender of basketball. There are times when there are emergency fill-ins or last minute coverages of games, but they almost always get someone to fill those games even the day of the game. The schools might not get the best of the best every night working, but they get officials that can competently cover the games. And not all conferences are 16 teams. Many are 12 or fewer and I rarely hear of this being a problem to get officials in basketball. Also that means that you might even get some younger officials working levels they would not have worked in the past, but the games get covered.

Peace