[JRutledge]

This is discussed several times over on this site. You might want to do a little search and you will find more information.

Just to overview what we do here is my state of Illinois. The Illinois High School Association handles all the assignments. There are not "coach approvals" or association picks. The sports administrator does the assigning for the entire state and all levels. They do use a "power rating" system that gives some independent data to help, but ultimately it is up to the sports administrator to make the final decisions. In our state we have 4 different tournaments:

Class A-Girls
Class AA--Girls
Class A--Boys
Class AA--Boys

Each tournament has their own State Final Weekend starting with the Girl's Class A (small schools) Tournament. The only way you are to work the State Final in any of the tournaments you have to start at the Regional level and go all the way to the State Finals. Also both Boy's and Girl's have their own sports administrator. There are some people that work both boy's and girl's playoffs, but it is unlikely that most will work both during the same year unless that official is only working the Regional level.

Peace