bad information

[CMHCoachNRef]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

1) And from an officials' standpoint, if you do so:
a) You just knowingly screwed the other team
b) You may have cost yourself your career by doing so
If you pull that one at the state playoff level with it's attendant spotlight and publicity, you may never work at that level again. And if a complaint comes in against your actions, pray tell just what you are going to say to respond to that complaint.
It's never a good idea to ignore a plainly written rule just because you don't agree with it. And it's never a good idea to advocate that other officials should do so either. Two wrongs don't make a right.

2) It could possibly cost them their job. But that's got nothing to do with us either. That's the responsibility of whoever is assigning the table crew. It's their job to deal with it, not ours.

3) Yes, I am thinking as an official...

JR,
I passed this question along to one of our local rules interpretors. His view, interestingly, was basically the same as mine. Since the information came from the Official Book, that informatoin is, well, official. Therefore, he would not allow such a change to take place in the book, thus granting the timeout without penalty.

I have posed the exact question to numerous officials since this posting hit this past week. NOT ONE official that I have presented this situation to would call this technical foul. One official who has worked a State Final indicated that he would have, when informed of the error by the timer, not grant the timeout (since the coach would not have requested it had he not been informed that he did, indeed, have one). He would have immediately put the ball back in play and not allow any subs.