The most nonsensical tweets ever tweeted?

[Rich]

You and I have similar workloads.

I'm not sure it's a fair comparison.

I'm sure you and I have day jobs and pressures associated with them. Officials working 80+ D1 games are likely not worrying about day jobs during the season, rushing to high schools to make $60 to $80 a game.

[Nevadaref]

I would like to see a cap of 70 college games for any official.
That would be 5 in November, an average of 20 in each of December, January, and Februray, then five more in March. After that they could work the NCAA tourney.

This would also permit some more openings for people moving up.
I don't believe the games themselves wear down the officials as much as the travel at that level does.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

I would like to see a cap of 70 college games for any official.
That would be 5 in November, an average of 20 in each of December, January, and Februray, then five more in March. After that they could work the NCAA tourney.

This would also permit some more openings for people moving up.
I don't believe the games themselves wear down the officials as much as the travel at that level does.

"Restriction of trade." They are independent contractors. Make them employees and what you post is reasonable.

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by Rich

"Restriction of trade." They are independent contractors. Make them employees and what you post is reasonable.

What about putting a stipulation in their independent contractor agreement to this effect?
What about the NCAA making a regulation that it will only use officials for the NCAA tournament who work fewer than X number of regular season games?
Seems that there are several ways to enact such without making officials employees.

[Eastshire]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

What about putting a stipulation in their independent contractor agreement to this effect?
What about the NCAA making a regulation that it will only use officials for the NCAA tournament who work fewer than X number of regular season games?
Seems that there are several ways to enact such without making officials employees.

One of the bigger tests in contractor/employee relationships is the individuals ability to accept work from others.

I think it would be possible to institute a cap, but it would have to be done carefully. I think both of your ideas have potential.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Eastshire

One of the bigger tests in contractor/employee relationships is the individuals ability to accept work from others.

I think it would be possible to institute a cap, but it would have to be done carefully. I think both of your ideas have potential.

The contract is with Conference A. How can that contract say that an official can't work for Conference B the night before or after?

I assign 20 boys HS teams and 18 girls HS teams -- while I can use whoever I want, how can I even begin to KNOW where someone else is working the other nights of a week?

[scrounge]

Originally Posted by Rich

The contract is with Conference A. How can that contract say that an official can't work for Conference B the night before or after?

I assign 20 boys HS teams and 18 girls HS teams -- while I can use whoever I want, how can I even begin to KNOW where someone else is working the other nights of a week?

It's easy, you put it in your contract that if they work for you, then they can't work for any other conference.

Of course, you're going to have to then start withholding taxes, setting up a worker's comp plan, etc. Because you've just made them employees.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by Rich

The contract is with Conference A. How can that contract say that an official can't work for Conference B the night before or after?

Very easy. The people writing the contracts can have just about any stipulation they want. They can't say the official can't ever work for the other conference without getting into the employer/employee area. But, they could easily say that the contract for Game X begins 36 hours before the game time and can specify what the official is expected to do or not do during the contracted time. They already do that to some degree by requiring arrival at the site a couple hours before the game and arrival in the city by a certain time. There really is no reason additional commitment times couldn't be added.

If not all conferences to it, they might have to offer more pay for the extended contract requirements but most of the big conferences could easily afford that if they really wanted to ensure the officials were not working every day, day after day. Even if they don't pay more and all the big games have the same terms, being able to work only 3-4 $1000-2000+ games a week really isn't a hardship at that level.

Originally Posted by Rich

I assign 20 boys HS teams and 18 girls HS teams -- while I can use whoever I want, how can I even begin to KNOW where someone else is working the other nights of a week?

Maybe not at the high school level, but, at the D1 level, knowing where others is pretty easy (if someone needed/wanted to know) when pretty much every game is televised somewhere and their are databases out there that track which officials worked where.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by Rich

"Restriction of trade." They are independent contractors. Make them employees and what you post is reasonable.

That is the key word. The terms of any contract can just as easily impose such restrictions as not. The terms of the job can include so many days of rest if they wished.

I forget where I heard it but I remember hearing that John Adams and the ref committee prefer refs who have worked around 70-80 games to work the higher levels in the tournament. Adams is a big proponent of being fit to get into the right position to make the call and believes a lot more than 80 games is detrimental to that fitness.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

That is the key word. The terms of any contract can just as easily impose such restrictions as not. The terms of the job can include so many days of rest if they wished.

One of the low level college (D2, I think) conferences around here has restricted their football officials from working high school football. We lost a few of our high school guys when that happened.

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by Adam

One of the low level college (D2, I think) conferences around here has restricted their football officials from working high school football. We lost a few of our high school guys when that happened.

Yes, I remember reading about that. Rocky Mountain Conference, or something like that.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

Yes, I remember reading about that. Rocky Mountain Conference, or something like that.

Yep, RMAC.

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

...
I don't believe the games themselves wear down the officials as much as the travel at that level does.

I local guy dropped down from the NBA back to NCAA ball this season, and he said that even though he on the road about the same amount of time, college travel is brutal b/c of all the back-to-back games and late night flights. Plus add on that a lot of D1 universities are not necessarily near major airports. So driving to the sites adds on even more travel.