Game Official Assignment Process

[first_year_guy]

  At the end of the day to us as officials it is only a game, but to the coach the games are his evaluation.

This type of "mindset" probably accounts for the mediocrity seen in the vocation of officiating

[Cowman52]

 No, the fact that there are not enough officials, too many games, and the cold hard fact that an official that draws a breath is the only requirement for maybe 60 percent of the games. Good or bad at it is not on the list.

[TexDoc]

If I was a coach I would want to have say in who officiates my games, and I think we all would if we were the coach.  We all need to remember a coach makes his living on wins and losses.  Granted the coach chose this profession.   We as officials are nothing more than paid volunteers.  At the end of the day to us as officials it is only a game, but to the coach the games are his evaluation.

That's exactly what the coaches say.  The same coaches who say this, then change jobs/schools every 2 or 3 years.  The argument doens't hold water.  Officials have very little, if any, affect on the W/L columns.  With that said, I say this argument is pure BS and point to college football as proof.  Those coaches sure make a heck of a lot more money and they do not get to choose their officials.

[ElvisLives]

It doesn't matter what we want. We aren't in charge here.

Thanks to folks like George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, the Adams, Thomas Jefferson, et al, we are no longer subjects of the British Empire.  They weren't in charge when they started the American Revolution, either.
No matter how big - like a political revolution - or how small - like Texas HS officiating assignments - if people want something, they fight for it.  And, if enough people fight the good fight, they win.
So, back to the poll question:  Do you want a system that eliminates the competing institutions from the assignment process?  Or not?  You make the call.

Robert

[JasonTX]

If I was a coach I would want to have say in who officiates my games, and I think we all would if we were the coach.  We all need to remember a coach makes his living on wins and losses.  Granted the coach chose this profession.   We as officials are nothing more than paid volunteers.  At the end of the day to us as officials it is only a game, but to the coach the games are his evaluation.

We have a coach who won 1 game in 5 years and has no problem getting contract extensions each year.  If you are a good educator that is what keeps the job.  I have seen coaches go undefeated with a state championship lose their job at the end of the season.  No matter how great the coach is, if you don't have athletes you lose games.  You can't coach athleticism but you can coach them to be good men.

[TexDoc]

We have a coach who won 1 game in 5 years and has no problem getting contract extensions each year.  If you are a good educator that is what keeps the job.  I have seen coaches go undefeated with a state championship lose their job at the end of the season.  No matter how great the coach is, if you don't have athletes you lose games.  You can't coach athleticism but you can coach them to be good men.

Well said!   

[ElvisLives]

Well, the poll surprises me.  Of course, it is totally unscientific, and the sampling was extremely small compared to the whole body of TASO officials.  But, I am surprised that ANYBODY said they DO NOT want to keep the competing institutions out of the assignment process.  Not only shocking, but frightening.  I can only surmise those folks want to maintain the status quo, and they fear change.  They must fear their schedule will “suffer” if the system changes.

Well, I will keep spreading the gospel of independence.

Robert

[Magician]

Indiana has a crazy "assigning" process as well. For the most part the schools hire crews directly and games are scheduled as many as 5 or 6 years in advance. Our crew is booked through 2022 and we have 1 game booked in 2024. That's crazy because crews change and/or dissolve over time. Schools change ADs and don't always keep track of crews hired well and transition to the new AD so he/she ends up double booking games. School change conferences which causes schedules to change which can cause a crew to lose a game. Some schools do hire assigners to schedule their game, but they are individual people so you are just networking with a handful of individual assigners rather than the ADs.

Playoff assignments are done by the IHSAA based on a ranking that is mostly based on coaches voting on crews. Around weeks 6-8 the school are all sent a list of crews that applied for the playoffs. They are asked to vote for the crews that worked their games the last 3 years, but there is no way to enforce it since the state doesn't have any schedule info. Some crews get 20-30 votes and some crews get 80-100 votes. The ones with more votes tend to get a lot more 5s (highest rating) because they know a lot of coaches and ADs. It's ultimately a popularity score and not a quality score. For the most part the same crews cycle to the finals. We got 28 votes this year and only half the schools we worked the past 3 years voted for us. We had 6-8 votes from schools where we've never worked or haven't worked for a few years.

That being said, I think the Texas system of coaches specific games is crazy, especially in the playoffs. They should have no direct say in which crews work those games.

[TexDoc]

So, in Indiana, can the crews/officials call or visit schools and coaches and ADs to solicit games?

[HoustonRef]

So, in Indiana, can the crews/officials call or visit schools and coaches and ADs to solicit games?

Add work as a ball boy in the playoffs only to be picked the following weekend by that same school.

[TexDoc]

Add work as a ball boy in the playoffs only to be picked the following weekend by that same school.

"Ballboy."  Is that a metaphor?  And for what?

 

[clearwall]

Playoff assignments are done by the IHSAA based on a ranking that is mostly based on coaches voting on crews.

This seems like it would make the problem we complain about even worse. If you throw a bunch of flags against a team that is destined to go to state, you can kiss your playoffs goodbye. I've found that the only time I get good "ratings" by coaches is when A) they win and B) I dont throw flags on their players.

[HoustonRef]

"Ballboy."  Is that a metaphor?  And for what?

 

Nope real talk. R worked balls for a team/sideline then that coach picked him for his game next week.

[Magician]

This seems like it would make the problem we complain about even worse. If you throw a bunch of flags against a team that is destined to go to state, you can kiss your playoffs goodbye. I've found that the only time I get good "ratings" by coaches is when A) they win and B) I dont throw flags on their players.

Each school gets 1 vote for you so the 9-0 team counts just as much as the 0-9 team. They don't get to collectively decide. Some crews are paranoid that a school will give them a bad vote if they make a call against them, but I don't think it has as big an impact as they think. It really comes down to HOW many votes you get. Theoretically the more votes you get the more "friendly" votes you are getting and the higher your average vote. As I said above, the crews that advance the final couple rounds (we have 6 rounds) tend to get 80-100 votes. Those with 30-40 votes have a lot less margin of error and the bad votes that ding a crew probably separate 1st and 2nd round crews more than preventing them from reaching the regional final or beyond.

Ultimately if you communicate in a professional manor with coaches and treat them with respect you'll get more positive votes than negative votes. You'll still get the guy who's HACKED off because you missed 30 holding calls on his opponent or you flagged them for being in your way on the sideline, but if you only get 1 or 2 of those votes it won't have a major impact on your rating. And the same thing applies to every crew, not just your crew.

[mccormicw]

One coach told me this year that our association was working his game because he won a coin toss.  If he had lost the coin toss, the other coach would be picking who worked the game.

[JasonTX]

One coach told me this year that our association was working his game because he won a coin toss.  If he had7 lost the coin toss, the other coach would be picking who worked the game.

They flip for everything it seems.  We had a game where the winner of the toss picks the chapter and the other coach got to pick the crew from that chapter.