Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
All the states that did the experimental rule had people that are college officials as their administrator of the sport.
Also not sure what you mean by very local? You mean the entire state? I was not referring to my immediate area. You realize I live in some of the most affluent areas in the state of Illinois and those schools do not have play clocks and in some cases turf. But turf is very common here and that was often a bone of contention with school districts to provide. Most of the schools also are bigger schools that are like from 6A to 8A (we have 8 classes) with over 2000 students (or more) in those schools depending on the school's size. Again, we do not have ball boys. Worked two scrimmages and no mention of having any ball boys. So you keep trying to convince me of something that no one has a plan for. The state's solution was to approve more balls per game (something we already did BTW for bad weather games). It might have been well thought out at the local level with the people doing the experimental rules, but that does not mean it was well thought out by the others. Again, not the biggest deal, but there we did not take the college approach to this which is what my issue was from jump. And to me, this does not make everything perfect in football. IT is just a rule change. All NF rules changes are not well thought out. And it really was not well thought out if lower levels have 2 officials working games in many cases. Heck, we do not even have game clocks in many lower-level games at all. But hey, it was well thought out right? 
Just like other things the state could have said or put in a procedure for ball boys just like they do when it comes chain crews. They have a suggested procedure that we as officials can refer to and it is so common we do not have to even address basic things.
Peace |
Correct. By local I meant the state of Illinois. That is 1 of 45 states doing this for the first time this year. That is very local. Based on what you have shared your state has a major issue understanding effective ball mechanics and game management. That's unfortunate and I agree there is only so much you guys can do about it. They have put you in a tough position. Hopefully someone is giving them feedback. "This will work if we made these 2 or 3 minor changes."
The person behind this not only has no experience in college football rules he despises us doing anything he considers a college mechanic or philosophy. He learned many crews were starting each series on a yard line to make measurements largely unnecessary and sent an email out telling us not to use that "college mechanic." It's not a college mechanic. It's just a good practice for game management when the specific spot doesn't matter (i.e. between the 10s). And our state has maybe 30 active HS officials who also do college (out of 900 licensed officials) so it was new to almost everyone when we started it.