http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/colu...php?ntid=70817

I have my opinions, but for once am just going to keep my mouth shut.

Crazy
 

I think scheduling officails two and three years out is crazy! It also can cause serious problems.

Scheduling far in advance is common in the smaller schools in my area. Everybody wants to work in the 4A conferences, so the little guys feel like they have to lock officials up in advance. I have a Varsity contract right now for December of 2008. I worked at a school last month where the AD told me he was trying to book his 08-09 season. So it can be tough to get varsity games. If you were to start trying right now, you may not find anything available until 07-08 at the earliest. The 4A conference here hasn't even put out availability sheets yet for next season, but again, they have no trouble finding guys who want to work for them.

I'm with you Rich! What a CROCK!

What's a crock? The article; or the practice of assigning games 3 years in advance?

In SW Ohio for the most part we are being assigned now for next year. In most cases, its just holding dates. In some cases, its committing to actual games already. Depends on how organized the league is.

A couple leagues are taking some Friday dates for 2007/2008 but usually just from the top dogs.

IMO, there are several points in the article that are a "Crock!": 1) scheduling 2-3 yrs out; 2) the fact that Wisconsin doesn't use 3-person crews yet; 3) the mindset that losing coaches will evaulate an official unfavorably based on the outcome of the game (in Illinois that effect has been shown to be statistically insignificant); and 4) the typical mindset that third official will not add to the quality of the officiating.

I'll keep my mouth shut too.

BOTH!

One thing I don't understand is how an official could agree to take a specific game 2,3,4 years in advance, let alone how one can actually be assigned. Personally, I don't know where in my life I will be 2 years from now, what may come up professionally and personally. What if I get injured the day before the game, do I feel an extra obligation to work it injured because I committed to the game 3 years ago?!? From an assignor's perspective, you can't know for a fact who the top officials will be 3 years from now, nor do you even know what type of matchup you'll have and it becomes impossible to match a crew to a game. Do you put an "A" crew on a game between two top teams now, only to find 3 years later they're both rebuilding? What about top officials who move to the area or up and comers? I wonder how many turnbacks there are... This whole system in my opinion is a joke and it does a disservice not just to the officials, but to the teams as well.

First of all any of us will work whatever system we have to if we want to officiate. So officials take games in this system I am sure no different than any other system. I do not see what that would be difficult to understand. If you love officiating, you will take games within the system you are given. What might happen 3 years from now I would think is a minor issue? I agree that things can change, but if that is how you are going to get a schedule, I will assume most of us will take the games. The part of the equation that should not like the system is the schools if you ask me. The schools are assigning games based on something that might change. They might have a game with an official that is tough and now they are locked into that agreement (with some exceptions of course) for a couple of years.

Now I can tell you I have been given games in this capacity and it is really not that big of a deal. The major difference is not every school was doing this so it did not really matter that much to me as it would an entire state. When I started football officiating this was the process that we had to deal with. It really was not that big of a deal in football because you are only talking about 9 weeks and mostly Fridays. I would see this as a bigger problem in basketball where you have several games in a week and not all games are on the weekend.

Peace

There is no logical reason to schedule that far in advance. There are way to many variables that can change so you will still be making change after change during the current season anyway and for what?

So you can lock up the "top" officials who may not be the "top" dogs next year, much less 3 years from now. It's stupid, it screams of the good old boy system, it discourages promising young officials, it will lead to a lack of mentoring younger officials, and closes the door on worthy officials that move into the area.

I'd love to respond to this and some of the other posts, but I'm keeping my mouth shut.

[Edited by Rich Fronheiser on Feb 1st, 2006 at 06:45 PM]

Rich, why won't you respond? Do you work in an area that assigns far in advance like this?

On one hand, an AD could use this system to lock up what they consider to be good officials at the time.
On the other hand, those officials might not be the best officials when the games actually are played and it could keep a better/more deserving offial from getting games. I could see this being the cause of officials quitting or only doing college games after moving to a new area.
Like Rut said, we have to work within the system where we live. I'm glad I don't work in an area like this; I don't mind competition but this system doesn't seem to leave room for someone to compete.

I wish our school district could schedule games a year in advance. They don't even finalize their schedule until a couple of days before the season and then change it on a daily basis. This is very unfair to officials as a whole, but different areas do different things. The good old boy system is still alive and well most everywhere.