How long is too long....
 

NF Had a varsity game on Monday that had been postponed the previous Friday because of weather.
The game time was 6:00. At the pre-game with the coaches, home HC asked me (referee) what the penalty going to be if his team was not ready to play at 6:00. "15 yards on the KO". He did not seem too concerned and made no attempt to get them ready. We had not even seen one of his players on the field yet. He also stated he really did not know how long it would be before they were ready.

After the meeting, the crew discussed how we would handle a extra long delay. We could not come up with a good answer.

The game started at 6:15, so it never came into play.

Your thoughts, please.

I don't think I would be too concerned with the game not starting on time. I would find out what time would suit him and then let the game adminstrator get involved so that the visiting team could be informed.

Ohio has procedures for dealing with teams that don't show up, won't take the field, etc. Basically a forfeit rule.

So, you think that penalizing the home team was wrong?

Under the circumstances, no. I was thinking of what to do if they don't show up until an hour or eleven after game time.

It is well regulated here. If they are not ready within 60 minutes they forfeit.
I've had teams need the time (to get enough players to the game after some didn't drive with the bus), and I've had a few abuses (coach thought it would give him an advantage by throwing the warm-up schedule of the other team).

I argue here that they should also get the penalty, since it is in the rule book, but none of the WH's in the situations have leveled it.

Well 3-6-3 says: Failure of a team to play within two minutes after being ordered to do so by the referee. Penalty: Forfeiture.

It is up to the crew to decide when to give that two-minute warning.

At the least the state or some body in charge of regulating the home school should be informed of the unwillingness of the home team to start or resume the game.

Declaring a forfeit should be an absolute last resort after all other attempts to start a game have been exhausted.

I once had a team show up 30 minutes after we supposed to start because the bus driver got lost on the way to the game. We knew they were coming though because their cheerleader (yes, singular) managed to find the place. Gotta love those small school 8-man games.

We had a sub-varsity game start about 30 minutes late because the bus driver decided to take a shortcut, which at the time was actually a construction zone. When the AD told us the visitors were running late because the driver decided to take that particular route, my white hat and I looked at each other and shook our heads because we knew there was another shortcut that wasn't under construction, and would have actually been quicker than the shortcut they were taking. The AD was like, how do you boys know that? "We're also driver's ed teachers" :D