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In 5 years I've been in 4 states...
Illinois - 5 officials all the way through, and yes, downstate we have plenty of officials to go to more. (I did see a 6-man crew work a tv game, and they were as sloppy as could be, I think they added a 6th since they were on tv and made up the mechanics)
Indiana - 5
Missouri - 5 officials regular season, districts, and state playoffs.
Nebraska - Outside of the Omaha-Lincoln areas 5 officials has just recently become the norm. In fact there are still a dozen or so crews working 4 officials on 8-man games. The state only allows 5 man crews to apply for playoffs. Here schools pay the crew, so its $300 for the crew whether you bring 4 or 7. Since I just moved here, I was #6 on our crew, and we worked 6-man in the old Illini-Badger NCAA d3 conference, but I wouldn't try to teach that to a crew of 5 guys who have only worked 5 for 3 years in a pregame. We're now wrestling with school in basketball, state wants to go to 3 and schools who have been paying $100 for 2 are only willing to pay $120 for 3.
Having worked 6 man I enjoyed the dead-ball help on the sidelines, and the over-the-top help. I worked both a deep wing and an umpire, as a deep wing you have to be a little slower and trust your umpire to kill the obvious short-hop in front of the player. Umpire, has to do what he is suposed to do anyway, he just has to be more diligent about it.
All that being said, I would rather have 10 well trained eyes, than 12 so-so trained eyes.
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