Lockout over!!!

[paulsonj72]

Originally Posted by Steven Tyler

I would have liked to have a nickel for everytime Barkley said, "That's thurrebull", after the game.

I do have a question though. Years ago, the NFL made a team that scored a TD on the last play of game still attempt the extra point. I wonder if it had anything to do with the point spread or the over/under bets.

The end of the Green Bay/Seattle game would been even crazier if the Packers block the point after, and ran it back for the safety to tie the game.

But if I was the coach of the Seahawks, I would have gone for two, and took a knee. However the NFL didn't have the two point conversion rule back then, and the play was dead immediately after blocked kick.

Also deep in the playoff tiebreakers is point differential. So an extra point COULD theoretically be the difference between making the playoffs or not. However, since the CURRENT system for tiebreakers has been used it has never been used. I can only think of 1 time when it was used and that was in 1979 when Chicago got the 2nd NFC Wild Card berth by better net points in all games. Baiscally that was the point diffferential in all games thar year and the Bears won it by 4 points. On that day they were a -33 to the Redskins going into play but beat the Cardinals by 36 and Washington lost to Dallas by 1 for the finals differential.

[tmagan]

I know college basketball officials are independent contractors. But college football officials work for a specific conference, so how come they are not unionized?

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by tmagan

I know college basketball officials are independent contractors. But college football officials work for a specific conference, so how come they are not unionized?

They are still independent contractors. They are paid like independent contractors and they are assigned games like independent contractors. They can be replaced anytime and often are replaced.

Peace

[Texas Aggie]

Its difficult to unionize when you have multiple employers. NFL officials can be hired and fired based solely on the discretion of the NFL, just like the control college conferences have. The difference is the multitude of college conferences on all levels of college basketball -- NCAA D1, 2, 3, NAIA, and Juco. There are officials who work all of those classifications (some even for both genders). Essentially, collective bargaining wouldn't work for the Big 10 solely (for example), and conferences colluding to bargain collectively would bring up sticky legal issues.