[BoomerSooner]

Isn't it still a form of ageism if assignors are selecting officials with the intent to avoid the appearance of favoring any a specific age group?

For example, on a 3-man crew, the first official is selected based on his/her qualifications and happens to be 61 years old. The next best official (based on evaluations, ratings, etc) is 57 years old and gets a spot on the crew. But that last spot comes down to the 3rd best official available in the pool, a 62 year old, and the 10th best official in the pool, a 32 year old. The rankings are based on a combination of current and past performance evaluations. If the 32 year old gets selected just because the crew already has 2 older refs, then the 62 year old has been discriminated against because he's old.

You could apply this to any "-ism". The key to deciding on if it is inappropriate is if the decision was made based on the element in question (race, age, gender, etc). Qualification should always be the biggest factor in decisions like this, but there are plenty of other factors that would be completely appropriate to use in selecting the 32 year old in my example. If you want the 32 year old to learn from the two best officials in the pool, that is an acceptable reason to put him out there. If the thought is I'm making sure to protect the opportunities for one group in this case, it comes at the expense of limiting opportunities for another group.