Wow, I thought TASO folks knew the system, but apparently some don't. OK, the UIL's policy is really simple - the opposing participants must agree on the officials. Without getting into specific words, that's about it. There is no actual requirement for UIL participants to use TASO, or any trained or qualified official(s). If I heard it once from Bailey Marshall, Bill Farney, and, yes, Charles Breithaupt, I heard it a dozen times: coaches can use their grandmothers, if they both agree. During the Marshall-Farney years, though, they made sure that schools used TASO officials, or had a darned good reason to use someone else (which, because of their support for TASO, was very, very rare, if it ever happened).
In theory, this mutual agreement concept would assure impartiality. In theory.
How does it work in practice? Assignment practices vary widely across the state. In some areas, the vast majority of assignments are made by the chapter assignor, based upon scratch and/or preferred lists from the soliciting participant. In many cases, the visiting team may not have been consulted, because it knows they have the same ability - they'll get the officials from their home (or preferred) chapter. This is the informal, "you use your officials - I'll use mine," principle. But any visiting team can certainly insist on giving their approval. Some (many?) of those same chapters may also have to accept assignments made directly by coaches. They coach(es) will either contact the officials directly, request specific officials from the chapter, or go through some sort of 'draft' process. This more direct system is what some chapters have to use for the vast majority of their assignments. If there is a chapter anywhere in Texas that has the ability to make all of its assignments without any form of influence from the participants, I'm not aware of it, and it would certainly be an aberration. Even then, any time one of the participants decided to exercise its UIL-given right to 'agree' to the officials, the chapter would have to accommodate. There are probably a bunch of other permutations, but the bottom line is that the participants have the right to select (hand-pick, in many cases) the officials that work their games.
So, how do officials react when they know a coach has the ability to pick him/her, or not pick him/her? In the perfect world, they don't react. They work with absolute impartiality, regardless of the circumstances, or possible repercussions.
But this world isn't perfect.
There have been, and, undoubtedly, still are, individuals that would at least make sure they didn't upset certain coaches (by, at a minimum, not enforcing sideline decorum, uniform/equipment rules, etc.), if not downright made sure those participants were successful.
Officials are the entire justice system for sporting events. They are the police, the prosecutors, the judges, the juries, and the penal officers, all wrapped up in one package. Give me an example of any other justice system in civilized, democratic societies that allows its citizenry to choose, by any method, the police officers that will be on duty at a given time; or allows defendants to choose their prosecutor, judge, or jury; or allows inmates to choose their warden. The conflict of interest is staggering.
The only time participants don't have the official ability to select their officials is when they can't mutually agree. Then the two participants turn to the UIL to secure an assignment. In those cases, the UIL will contact some other chapter, and will ask that chapter for a crew, usually with some form of qualification (i.e., only Division 1, or a certain racial mix, etc.).
Solution: By whatever process (courts, Legislature, or simple capitulation by the UIL), the participants must be removed from the assignment process. Any participant that needs officials may contact any chapter of its choice, and request a crew for a specified assignment, and the chapter will provide a crew (based upon the TASO-wide assignment policy previously mentioned). Note: the "assignment policy" could allow for a certain amount of pre-season 'scratches;' say, a number not to exceed 5% (negotiable) of a chapter. But no specific requests, no 'preferred' list, and no in-season (including post-season) scratches without the participant going through some sort of formal grievance process.
As far as I know, the UIL system is the only one that allows this. The NCAA, the NFL, MLB, the NBA, the NHL - none of them let participants select their officials. It is time to put a stop to it in Texas.
