[snrmike]

A wing being on the numbers during a varsity game is pretty poor mechanics. I have had it happen to me on a couple of occasions during lower level games. As a result, it taught me a hard lesson and I learned about staying in my proper position during varsity games.

Mike Simonds is absolutely correct about the unbalanced formations too. There are more things for wing officials to consider than just counting the backs. My son plays inside LB for a D-1AA school. His complaint is that officials frequently miss those OPI calls on unbalanced lines because they're too busy counting backs.

Giving the officials an excuse to officiate poorly because play was ragged is kinda weak, doncha think? Those are exactly the kinds of games officials are hired for. I'm not disagreeing that they're tough games and harder to ref, I'm saying that for those types of games, we have to bear down and make the right calls - and use proper discretion in the types of calls we make.