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Here is my thing, I really do not care either way. It is what it is. Ball boys even at the college level are often bad. We just have a procedure there to make it work a little better and we also have 7 officials as well to make it work. We have 5 right now at the high school level and unless that changes, ball boys would be a luxury and a problem at the same time. Either way, the NF had to know this when they put in the rule that many states do not have visible clocks and certainly does not have ball boys. I will be waiting as I did during before this current basketball season to figure out if they did not consider all the challenges that will occur with a new rule. We will see what happens when everything comes out for real. Peace |
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It was such a glowing success the states who did experiment were very concerned they would have to go back. I'm not sure if we would have given up our seat on the rules committee, but it would have definitely been a consideration. I did not speak with one coach or official who didn't love the change. And until our commissioner proposed the experiment 3 years ago I don't believe there was a huge demand for it. I have a hard time believing your ball boys are that incompetent they can't figure this out. I know several HS and small college officials in Illinois and none of them have raised the concerns you have at either level so I don't expect it to be an issue in your area. I think you will be just fine. |
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The rule just came out. So I am not so sure you know everyone that might have raised this issue or talked to everyone that implemented the rule. It is a conversation at this point. It does not mean the world is coming to an end. We are months away from any regular meetings about the topic in most areas so I would suspect many people are doing other sports and probably not fixated on football to even raise some issues. It might be nothing in the end. But I have been doing this awhile and rules like the Horsecollar foul or adding PSK or even putting in how fouls are administered after a score, all had issues when the rule came out and took some tweaking to get to where they are today. We have a rules interpreter that tells us every year, "It takes the NF 3 years to get a rule change right." And part of that statement is the frustration of how a rule is added but does not cover the little things that make it run smoothly and either our state or the NF has to come back to clarify something that was not covered properly. Honestly, I do not think it was necessary. We play fewer minutes in a game and they could have gone back to other rules they once had to speed up the game, like running the clock after a change of possession. We already have mercy rules that speed up games that are out of hand. It is the rule now, but was it so great of a change? No, not to me. Peace |
Considering the :40 sec clock is going to affect the offense the most and it's the offense whose ball has most likely gone out of play to the track or fence, it will be incumbent on them to insure that their ball person(s) are doing their utmost to retrieve it or get another one in play.
I imagine that if there is some inordinate delay, the Referee has the ability to blow it dead and re-set to the :25. Certainly would seem to be an item that needs to be covered by state offices at the coaches clinics this summer. |
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We will just have to deal with the issue. Heck I am good as when these become problems, likely the teams helped cause them. Peace |
Been working NCAA rules my entire career -- never worked a game under Fed rules. I'm shocked it took Fed so long to catch up to the 40 second clock. In fact, I think Fed rules in football are obsolete, but that's a different topic for a different time.
I've worked now a couple of hundred or so games under the 40 second clock including subvarsity (HS and jr. high) and on fields without play clocks. For most of our subvarsity, we don't enforce a strict play clock. unless the game situation calls for it (team ahead late has ball, etc.). In fact, we don't even turn on the clock for games on fields where there is a clock. I always work SV games with a belt timer so I can easily from any position work the 40 by using the hand up (10 seconds) and side count (5 seconds and lower) mechanic. We've used this in varsity games as well on fields that don't have a clock. If (SV) teams are running a good pace, I don't worry about it -- I just time timeouts. For varsity games we do enforce the clock rules and even in situations where there isn't a visible clock, we don't have very many complaints. I can't even remember one, honestly, on a legit delay of game foul. Maybe a question but after we told them when we started it and why, they accept it. The only times the 40 will really come into play on normal situations are long plays and deep pass incompletions. Good ball mechanics with 4-5 officials SHOULD keep things working OK. If not, just reset and blow the ready. Its no big deal. As a varsity R, not having the blow the ready every play leaves me free to concentrate on other things like substitutions, numbering, and communicating with my crew. Just get your clock guys to understand that they start the clock at the END of each play -- no exceptions. They can always turn off the play clock and reset if there's a penalty enforcement or other issue. For some reason, we've had experienced Referees running play clocks recently still not work the play clock correctly. Have a good pregame with the clock guys the first 3-4 weeks of the season, inform the coaches of where issues might arise in scrimmages, and you should have a smooth transition. After that, you'll wonder why they ever had it any other way. |
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In HS, we often have jr. high kids -- sometimes only 1 or 2 per sideline and always the same as that team. No crossover. We struggle sometimes but we still get it done. It just takes some effort with the wing officials. It is obviously easier with 7 officials but you can do it with 5. I can't recall a single HS game where the ball boys caused a significant 40 second clock snag during the game. I mean, yeah, there were times it may have happened and maybe my guys were good enough to cover up for it, but I can think of smaller school games where we had chain crew issues (team fans/adults) more than ball boy issues. Maybe I'm just used to it or again, maybe just lucky. We've worked a lot of 7 man the last 2 years in HS but most of my 40 second clock varsity games in HS have been 5 man. We've walked into locker rooms after games with my wing guys commenting on ball boys but I don't recall thinking, "yeah, they really hampered us tonight in a big way." |
I thought the 7 on the line rule was dead a long time ago. Wow. I don't even remember when the NCAA changed that.
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