[JRutledge]

I will tell you; this system is ten times better than what it was before.

The coaches used to sit at a meeting and pick the officials that "qualified" to work the playoffs and the State would pick from that list. So the coaches were the gate keepers of all playoff assignments. At least in this system the ratings are just one of many factors that the state can consider. Our board just sat down on Monday to decide our Top 15 list, another factor in the playoff system.

There are people that received playoff games today that could not smell the post season in the old system. There were many people that accused the IHSA as playing favorites and only hiring based on "political ties."

Officials are never going to be happy with a system they do not benefit from. I also think that this system is really not for the officials. This system is for the state to decide with independent evidence what others think of those officials. Unless someone can figure out a way to have officials at every game evaluating the officialÂ’s performance, we need something to provide information about those officials independently. No system is perfect and neither is our system.

Peace