There is plenty of support in the rules to make sure the benches are truly equal. Rule 2-13-1 only gives game management the right to designate the location of each team's bench area.

I suggest you look at "The Intent and Purpose of the Rules" to say you do have authority to make sure it is a fair and equal contest. The language here includes "to create an atmosphere of sporting behavior and fair play." Further it instructs "it is important to know the intent and purpose of a rule so that it may be intelligently applied." And lastly, "A player or team may not be permitted an advantage which is not intended by rule."

If you determine there is an "advantage" to one team having chairs close to the court and the other having to use bleachers 8 feet away, then you have full support from the rules to make the home team put out chairs for the visitors or put its chairs away and use the bleachers. If the home team provides itself fancy padded chairs and the visitors with hard metal chairs, then I do not see an advantage. But there clearly is a significant difference here and I say the rules give you full authority to make it equal.

Well Mr. Equality, you may want to read the RULES before you go and do something that is WRONG!


TEAM BENCH LOCATION
1.13.1 SITUATION: Upon arrival on the court, the visiting team is advised its team bench is located on the right side of the scorer's and timer's table. This location means the visiting team's substitutes will have to go considerably further than the home team to reach the reporting area. The visiting coach complains to the referee. <font color = red>RULING: The referee has no authority to move the location of either bench, unless it involves player safety.</font> Game or home management is responsible for designating the location of the team benches. The visiting coach must accept this designation, unless player safety is involved. Obviously, <font color = red>it is intended</font> that the benches be on the floor-level seats or bleachers and <font color = red>that the team benches be approximately the same distance from the table whenever possible.</font> The referee should report the unusual bench location to the state association office.



So what do you say to that? :D

Why, oh why do officials feel like they need to inject themselves into situations that have nothing to do with the game?

Work the game, report to the commissioner. If the visiting coach complains, tell him you have no jurisdiction and that he should report it to the league.

Don't we have enough to do just working the game?

O.k., what about this similar situation?

The home team locked the visitor's locker room when they left to start the game (common practice), but when half-time comes, nobody can manage to find the key. By the time we get in, have our talk, and get back out, the horn sounds and we're supposed to run right on the court!

I told the referee we had trouble getting in our locker room, so he gave us a few seconds to get to our bench and get my five out on the court, but no time to warm up.

Is there any way in a situation like that for a referee to add time to the half-time break? Or should the punishment be a T(based on past experiences with that school, I have my suspicions that the home team was playing games, but obviously no proof)?

Now, the Visiting coach should raise the safety issue. It's not safe for the home team to be that close to the floor, cause someone could come flying off the court after a loose ball and go crashing into the home bench, injuring some of their team members. :D

Coach, write it up and send it in to your league administrator(s). It's really got nothing to do with the officials, and there's no rules basis for an official to do anything. If you don't have any proof, what is an official supposed to go on? It sounds like you do have a valid concern about your treatment at that school though.

If coach is all stressed about his kids not getting to warm up and the story seems plausible, I don't see a problem with putting a couple extra minutes on the clock and letting em warm up. After all, if they don't get a chance to warm up and then get injured, they're gonna blame you for not allowing them ample time to warm up.

Coach, there are two schools of thought here...

ONE) You know there is only 10 minutes between halves...why did you take up that time talking when you could have been "warming up"? Sure, you were disadvantaged by having less time to talk, but you made the choice to talk. Also, this is something you should take up with your league if you really think it is "games" that the Home team are playing with the keys. Officials don't get involved in game management situations...ie. cold showers, no towels, hard seats, etc. Again, you must have deemed the talking was more important than the "warming up". (BTW, why not talk outside the locker room untill it is opened up)

TWO) That is totally unfair to the visiting team...you were placed at a disadvantage. You should have equal time to talk and "warm up" as the other team had. This is a saftey issue...the kids could get hurt without a proper warm up period. So what if the game is delayed and the other team gets extra minutes to warm up...you deserve your rightful time between halves, in a proper environment.

Now Coach...flip a coin as to which camp your officials for the night are in.

They put poker on TV, anything is possible!

Hey...put a fork in it...I like that stuff. :)

Why not?! poker is really popular! ...isn't it even considered a sport (maybe there should be a thread about poker being a sport or not, just like the one with the cheerleading :p ;) )
hey, RookieDude, do you play?
Any tips for good sites??

Talk about a call back thread. I had to re-read the whole things just to make sure something didn't slip under my radar. Anyways, if you're wanting to discuss poker, you've probably found the wrong site.

sorry, my bad.

Well, now, better late than never, I suppose. I'll take this opportunity to speak up. Yes, the visitor's locker room at Kinnick Stadium is still pink. More accurately, it's pink again. They just revamped the stadium and painted the new visitor's locker room pink to continue the tradition.

I just heard a story about the old Michigan coach who just passed away. He had the locker room in Iowa City wallpapered prior to his team using it.

Oh, and Jeff, you may go to this website, if you dare....

http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/teamSchedule?statsId=28

As others have said, the bench disparity here is not an issue for officials to handle.

I write just to point out that if in fact the disparity "is causing all kinds of problems," that may have more to do with the lack of leadership (coaches? players?) on visiting teams. I used to be a HS varsity coach, and I can tell you that I would not have allowed this to become an issue for anyone on my teams. High school basketball players should be taught to "rise above" petty silliness.