Lightning in the area, visitors are up 14-10. Heavy rain storm and play is halted.. After 30 minutes storm is gone but field is a mud pit. Home team says to play but visitors say they won't due to safety concerns. Home says come back tomorrow then but visitors says 200 mile trip is not possible. What should white hat do?

Reverse the situation Home up 14-10 and they say field is too muddy. Come back next day. Visitors say play now and 200 mile trip is not possible for next day.. Again how to handle???

Say it is early 3rd quarter and both teams fighting for playoffs winner goes, losers don't.

Have fun with this one....

If the R says the field is playable but one team refuses to play, then the contest is over. We would file an early termination report with the state association and they will determine the next step, i.e. forfeit, call the game "final", or resume at a later date.

Another option for a result of the game is to declare no winner. I worked a game where the visitors were up by 21 or 28 points in the second quarter when the rain and lightning came. We waited 45 minutes and it was still raining and lightning. Visitors didn't want to come back the next day because of the long drive. The winner of this game was really never in doubt but the state ruled that neither team won and that basically the game was never played. I didn't agree with this decision but they never asked me.

Unless directed to do so by your state association, I don't believe the issue of who wins the game is in our hands in these types of situations. State associations usually have rules or determine the winner in these types of games. We can only offer info if asked.

It's a no-brainer....
 

According to Federation, at least as applied in Illinois, the game must resume.

You must wait 1 hour before declaring a postponed game. If by the hour's end the lightening has completely passed you continue the game, after a 3 minute warmup period. Muddy field is not an acceptable reason for termination. Lightening is about the only excuse to stop the game.....outside of the outlandish like tornado, hurricane, etc.

With this said, it would appear any team refusing to play once the white hat declares it safe to play would be forfeiting.

Re: It's a no-brainer....
 

Actually, that's not the Federation policy. Sounds more like the IHSA policy. The NF policy is to wait 30 minutes after lightning or thunder. It's up to the state association as to how they handle a game that isn't resumed.