2 person varsity crews this year

[SC Official]

It really does not matter what we want or what we think is best. The schools that use 2-man for subvarsity do not care that "subvarsity officials need 3-man experience before moving up to varsity." That is not something the schools give a damn about; unless they see the benefit that we can see as officials, their response will be that someone on the subvarsity crew needs to work for free or the crew needs to split the 2-man fee amongst the three of them.

And quite frankly, a lot of inexperienced (heck, even some veteran) officials just watch the ball, and it's very obvious to even non-officials. The ADs will say, "Why would we pay a third set of eyes to just ball-watch?" And on that point, I would understand their perspective. Sure, we as officials all went through that stage and most newbies grow out of it, but again, the schools don't always see the long-term. I've worked my fair share of 3-man subvarsity and varsity games with officials whose heads move wherever the ball goes; every time coaches/ADs notice that, the argument for paying three officials loses merit in their eyes.

If the high schools in SC wanted to only pay two officials for varsity games, I guarantee you that's what would happen. When the schools are writing the checks, they call the shots. And more often than not, they do not care what we think. Obviously the situation in Iowa is much different due to there actually being a shortage of officials.