how does your state hand out post season

[wyo-referee]

In Wyoming it's based on coaches votes. You go as a crew all the way through the play-offs. This year we only had 22 crews put in for play-offs and we started with 20 games and worked down to 5 state championship games. Each school/coach gets 6 votes and the 5 crews with the most votes goes to the championship games.

[bisonlj]

Originally Posted by wyo-referee

In Wyoming it's based on coaches votes. You go as a crew all the way through the play-offs. This year we only had 22 crews put in for play-offs and we started with 20 games and worked down to 5 state championship games. Each school/coach gets 6 votes and the 5 crews with the most votes goes to the championship games.

Do you have a lot of crews who don't put in for the playoffs? You must have to qualify for the playoffs if you only have 20 first round games. Do you only have 3 rounds of playoffs?

Indiana also only goes by a coach's vote. They rate crews once a year on a scale of 1-5 with no guidelines or explanations of votes. Officials do have to pass the Part II test with a score of 90 or better but the way they do it that's a formality. Same with the rules meeting and application. Our plaoffs are all-in so there are 156 first round games. This year we had 166 crews apply so almost every crew gets a game. The top 80 crews get a second round game, top 40 third, etc. There 6 rounds total with 5 classes.

There are some restrictions about advancing. You have to be a certified official to work the second round and beyond. Certification requires at least 2 years experience, getting a 90% on the Part II exam and attending the bi-annual certificiation clinic. If you have a member of your crew that is not certified it doesn't affect your ability to advance. You just have to replace him for those games. There are plenty of certified officials that it is not difficult to find one. Crews are also defined by the R so a "New" crew could be a long-standing crew that just changed the R. New crews can't work beyond the second round regardless of score. A crew that worked a state final one year can only advance to the 3rd round the following year and then only 1 round each year beyond that (can only work a state final every 4 years). Half of the crews in the 4th round and beyond have to be crews that have never worked a state final (again defined by the R). I'm not aware of any crews intentionally replacing the R so they can move back up as a "New" crew but most of the "New" crews have a lot of the same members as a crew that previously worked the state finals but a different R.

Needless to say we don't get our best crews in the finals. There are officials working the NAIA champship game this year that didn't get a second round HS game. That makes sense!

[wisref2]

We know more about life on other planets than the process used to select state tournement crews.

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by wisref2

We know more about life on other planets than the process used to select state tournement crews.

In Ohio, the process actually involves life on other planets.

It's true, it's true...

[cmathews]

Originally Posted by bisonlj

Do you have a lot of crews who don't put in for the playoffs? You must have to qualify for the playoffs if you only have 20 first round games. Do you only have 3 rounds of playoffs?

There aren't a lot who don't put in, there just aren't a lot of crews in Wyoming. Yes you have to qualify, take the top 8 in each division and yes 3 rounds of playoffs...

last year we as well had an official work a DII national semi final game that didn't have any 2nd round games...but mostly because he had scheduling conflicts with dII regular season games during our playoffs

[parepat]

I could tell you...but I'd have to kill you.

[parepat]

Wow. Reading the earlier posts tells me that there must be a shortage of officials in alot of states. In Ohio only approximately 15% of football officials receive a playoff assignment. 50% of those get one game.

[Texas Aggie]

In Texas, its almost exclusively coaches picks in terms of what chapter assigns the games, and usually, what crews work. In the early rounds, the coaches may or may not ask for a specific crew -- its hard to tell what percentage. In our chapter, assignments are classified as "CP" as coaches picks or "AS" as assignment committee. CP could mean the coach calls and says, "we'll take Moe, Larry, or Curly's crew -- you pick." AS is when the coaches call and say they want our chapter, but leave the assignment up to the secretary/Pres/VP -- the committee. Not all chapters work this way. I'm told some assign ALL their games by either a committee or the normal assignment secretary. But no one is going to deny specific crew request if that crew is available -- its just semantics.

If the coaches can not agree on either crews or chapters, they'll call the state who will make the assignment by picking a chapter. There's no set requirements, state wide, for those assignments, but the crew chief will be a Division I or II, which typically means at least 8-10 years of experience minimum.

Different chapters will have different requirements on who can be on crews, but in our chapter, a 2nd year guy can and has worked significant early and late round playoff games. That's pretty much on the crew chief.

Late round games for private schools are sometimes held at a central site. Often, these games are assigned to chapters by the organization's office. They've used local chapters in the past but appear to be using more distant chapters recently -- including one crew of our's this year. Unfortunately, it wasn't my crew.