Quote:
Originally Posted by wyo-referee
In Wyoming it's based on coaches votes. You go as a crew all the way through the play-offs. This year we only had 22 crews put in for play-offs and we started with 20 games and worked down to 5 state championship games. Each school/coach gets 6 votes and the 5 crews with the most votes goes to the championship games.
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Do you have a lot of crews who don't put in for the playoffs? You must have to qualify for the playoffs if you only have 20 first round games. Do you only have 3 rounds of playoffs?
Indiana also only goes by a coach's vote. They rate crews once a year on a scale of 1-5 with no guidelines or explanations of votes. Officials do have to pass the Part II test with a score of 90 or better but the way they do it that's a formality. Same with the rules meeting and application. Our plaoffs are all-in so there are 156 first round games. This year we had 166 crews apply so almost every crew gets a game. The top 80 crews get a second round game, top 40 third, etc. There 6 rounds total with 5 classes.
There are some restrictions about advancing. You have to be a certified official to work the second round and beyond. Certification requires at least 2 years experience, getting a 90% on the Part II exam and attending the bi-annual certificiation clinic. If you have a member of your crew that is not certified it doesn't affect your ability to advance. You just have to replace him for those games. There are plenty of certified officials that it is not difficult to find one. Crews are also defined by the R so a "New" crew could be a long-standing crew that just changed the R. New crews can't work beyond the second round regardless of score. A crew that worked a state final one year can only advance to the 3rd round the following year and then only 1 round each year beyond that (can only work a state final every 4 years). Half of the crews in the 4th round and beyond have to be crews that have never worked a state final (again defined by the R). I'm not aware of any crews intentionally replacing the R so they can move back up as a "New" crew but most of the "New" crews have a lot of the same members as a crew that previously worked the state finals but a different R.
Needless to say we don't get our best crews in the finals. There are officials working the NAIA champship game this year that didn't get a second round HS game. That makes sense!