Cross Reffing

[Nevadaref]

Originally posted by JRutledge

We had this discussion before, but if the officials were making the decisions on these committees, then we might not have as many rules differences in the first place. Better yet, we might not have as many changes every year. These differences come from coaches and mostly from coaches. And someone is going to tell me that "in my state we have a representative that is an official." Well that is all fine and dandy, but when I look at the NF Committee I see coaches and administrators. Who cares if there is one official on any of these committees. That one official is not going to out vote 10 coaches that have never put on a whistle in a game in their life. There is no language in the rulebook saying "moving screen," but these wonderful people put it in the POEs for the past two years (NF). Now the NCAA Women's Committee in there wonderful wisdom changes the closely guarded rule yet again and the Men put in another lane variation. And I know all these people have to realize that you have officials working both HS and college to some extent who are going to be confused from one night to the next. Everything is not about D1, I hope they realize that. But this is why all the confusion. Coaches should not be making rules changes, without an significant imput from officials. But that would be a fantasy.

Peace

Jeff,
This that was well stated. Even as young as I am, I have noticed the irony in the fact that the coaches seem to make all the rules and then don't know any of them! The problem is that they have very little or no experience in enforcing these rules so they don't have a good grasp of what they are tinkering with. They view the game from a different perspective. For example, a judge and a cop are both in law enforcement, and while a judge may write a decision that impacts the way a cop does his job, he clearly would not be the best person to write a manual on police procedure. He simply doesn't deal with the public in this manner.

[CYO Butch]

Originally posted by Nevadaref

Jeff,
This that was well stated. Even as young as I am, I have noticed the irony in the fact that the coaches seem to make all the rules and then don't know any of them! The problem is that they have very little or no experience in enforcing these rules so they don't have a good grasp of what they are tinkering with. They view the game from a different perspective. For example, a judge and a cop are both in law enforcement, and while a judge may write a decision that impacts the way a cop does his job, he clearly would not be the best person to write a manual on police procedure. He simply doesn't deal with the public in this manner.

Great analogy! As a coach, I certainly have a different pespective than that of an official, and after coming to this board for a while now, I have come to appreciate the difference in a very positive way. I would say that in an ideal world, the rules committee would include coaches, adminstrators, and officials equally, all working toward the best possible wording or the best possible rules. Of course, I dream. At least many of the rule changes do have a chance to be tried experimentally before they go nationwide.

I agree that the differences between the rules are fustrating and rarely make any sense, and everybody (expect the rules committee members who might be left out) would be better off if there was only one set. Nevertheless, within each rule-making body there is some semblance of rationality. If only our law making process were as well thought through as as most basketball rules, life might be better as well.