The most nonsensical tweets ever tweeted?
 

I've lauded Fran Fraschilla on this forum before for having a greater rules knowledge than the average commentator, but here are two of his tweets tonight that make me roll my eyes...


"College officials: You've done too many games this year. You're tired & you're missing calls. Don't hurt game & players b/c fuse is short!"

"Very serious about this: @Big12Conference should mandate all tourney officials take 4-day break before @Big12Conference tourney starts."


Would anyone care to share any empirical evidence that proves college officials are worn out and have gotten "shorter fuses" at this point in the season?

Not empirical but I've done 60 Varsity games since November and I've noticed myself having a shorter fuse and being less focused during Jan and Feb. I can't imagine how those college guys do 80+ D1 games and don't experience similar things.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Losing Focus ...
 

Back in the day, when I was working as many games as possible for the money (mens, recreation, travel, etc.), I always started to lose focus, especially in non high school games, especially boring, lopsided, games, around the second week of February. That stopped when I only started to work scholastic games (high school, and Catholic middle school).

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.

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.

I'll add that I think coaches and players are also "worn down" and have "shorter fuses" at this time of year -- so they're more likely to do things that lead to Ts, especially if the officials also have shorter fuses.

As well as it being crunch time and teams (and officials) are jockeying for postseason slots.

Some coaches jobs are on the line, players careers are ending, etc... Just a stressful time for all before the wear and tear of the season is even taken into account.

We have a time of year that we call the "Dog days" around here, from late January to mid-February. Our season starts in late November and by that time of year, we know who is good and who is bad. Coaches are often very frustrated and conference titles are pretty much decided except for one or two teams or teams that know they will not win so they act out more and you have to communicate more not to give a T.

All this talk about officials working too much is funny, because it is only a handful of guys that are working that kind of schedule anyway. Most guys are working as many varsity games as we work but at the D1 level.

Peace

Not in my great state of South Carolina, where the SCHSL limits each official to two (2) varsity games per week. :D

Maybe ESPN commentators should propose the idea that coaches and players have gotten shorter fuses knowing that many of their seasons have gone down the drain.

Only way the top officials are going to take less games is to pay them more.