j51969 Are you part of IOA. I am as well. IOA just started this again this season and is only assigning underlevels this season. Next season it sounds like 20 some schools are going to use IOA to assign. Plus I believe most of the schools will use them for varsity as well. Not sure which schools they are assigning for though. They are not telling the officials unless you happen to get a game at one of the schools.

Out in outstate Nebraska (not Lincoln/Omaha), associations don't really exist. Officials are all contracted with the individual schools.

Here in eastern Iowa, there is an assigner for the local 4A conference and you get games through him. Most of the smaller schools all contract games directly with officials through the AD. There is one smaller conference in the area that is going to an assigner next year as well. It seems to be easier to get games by dealing directly with the AD, though it requires more legwork. My local association doesn't get me any games.

__________________________
M&M,
Which way do you like better? I personally like contracting independently. By the way which two in your area? Its only the Central State 8 in this immediate area as far as I know. When I was in Southern Illinois the town I lived in played in the Indiana Big Eight. That made for interesting dynamics. I never worked V at home because you cannot win, but about 65% of my games were in Indiana. They all were direct with the schools.

When I was in a part of Illinois where all my games were assigned independently, I hated that system. Mainly because there was too much inconsistency in when you would get games and who you got games from. If an AD would leave the school, you might not get a game at all. At least with a conference assignor, you do not lose games just because an AD changes. Also there is not enough turnover in conference assignors to worry about working games. I will say it is harder to get quality varsity games working for an assignor, but when you do work for an assignor you know the next year you are not going to be out because you T'd up the coach who happens to be the AD.

Peace

Hmm...I guess I never really compared the two. Back when I started, I joined an association that scheduled a lot of grade school and rec league games, so that's how I got started. As I moved into HS, I found I had to start contacting schools directly, so that's what I got used to. Then I started working juco, and got used to working with an assignor again. I've worked some in the CS8, as well as the Big 12 around here, and both have their own assignors. Most of the rest of the HS hire their own officials.

As far as which is better, I might have to lean towards the assignor system. It helps me from the standpoint of only having to deal with one person instead of 6 or 8 or 10 different schools. Also, there is someone I can call if I have a problem at a particular school, as opposed to trying to talk to the AD (who may be a part of the problem). I suppose the downside would be if you get on the bad side of the assignor, you are hurting your chances at many schools, as opposed to just that one. But I think the advantages outweigh the downside.

One of the things that usually get on the bad side of an assignor is when you do some pretty unprofessional things to get you fired or taken off of games. If you go to games on time and you do not behave in an unprofessional way, usually you will stay hired with an assignor at the HS level.

Peace

Not Varsity except MAYBE lower level private schools that for one reason or another don't work with a chapter. There were some Central Texas schools that that couldn't get served by the chapter closest to them, but they called our chapter to work some games. We didn't have any of their games until later in the season, so I don't know if they tried to freelance it first or not. But this is highly unusual, and the state association requires state officials (TASO).

That may, however, change soon. I'll keep you posted when I know more.