Louisiana Officials

[johnny d]

Originally Posted by crosscountry55

At the HS level, I absolutely agree. I know some college conferences have tiered systems where the R gets more than the U's (Big 12 is one of them, I believe) but I'm not sure if this is commonplace or not.

Tiered system isn't based on who is the R and who are the U's. Each conference sets their own criteria. A game may have 3 guys on the same tier or 3 guys each on a different tier. Many conferences do this. It helps the mid major and smaller conferences get some of the so called big names to work their games because it allows them to pay a higher fee than they do for most of the guys working those games.

[crosscountry55]

Originally Posted by johnny d

Tiered system isn't based on who is the R and who are the U's. Each conference sets their own criteria. A game may have 3 guys on the same tier or 3 guys each on a different tier. Many conferences do this. It helps the mid major and smaller conferences get some of the so called big names to work their games because it allows them to pay a higher fee than they do for most of the guys working those games.

Ahhhh. That actually makes very good sense. Thanks for clarifying.

[Rich]

I'm a high school assigner. I don't even want to pay travel for the reason I posted above -- schools will start questioning why I'm hiring guys from a longer distance.

My point is this -- currently officiating is a fixed cost. I'm against anything that makes it (even partially) a variable cost.

By any criteria I would benefit from such a system as an official monetarily, and I'm still not interested.

[just another ref]

There are experience restrictions here, too. Previously, you could only be the lowest level for the first year, regardless of test score, then the second level the second year if you made over 80, then top level (certified) after that so long as you made over 90. I don't know what those restrictions will be now. And our travel is paid from the home of the association to the school, regardless of actual distance traveled by the officials. Means feast or famine for some of us. This is particularly true for me personally, since I live at one extreme end of our territory.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by Rich

I'm a high school assigner. I don't even want to pay travel for the reason I posted above -- schools will start questioning why I'm hiring guys from a longer distance.

We pay travel, but it isn't based on where the official comes from. It is based on how far the school is from the center of town. A given school's amount is fixed regardless of who works the game.

For any given official and any given game, the amount may not reflect the actual distance driven but over time it averages out and generally reflects the differences in travel to different sites. It has the effect of making the outer schools more appealing to go to.

It serves to balance the appeal of different locations. Why would an official want to drive 40 miles (each way) to a low level school that is unlikely to have a good game when they can go 5-10 to a big school that is more likely to have a good game? Without travel to some of the distant locations, an official would actually lose money on some games.

Also, the assignor's pay isn't affected by the travel. It is based only on the base game fee without the travel portion.