IMO, there needs to be a restructuring of the scrimmage fee system. As others have previously mentioned, scrimmages are very important for officials to work to knock the rust off and, more importantly, use as a training ground for new officials. But it has become a lot to ask for officials to do it for free and not even have any guaranteed mileage reimbursement. I say guaranteed because schools are not required to pay mileage, even though they should. Especially when there's an ask for officials to travel 200 miles round trip at times.
The chapter scrimmage fee was established approximately 15-20 years ago to provide chapters an additional source of revenue in which the funds were to be used for recruitment, training and retention. This all started out good because back then it was expensive for local chapters to provide adequate mechanics manuals, training systems and recruitment advertising space. But technology and processes have changed so now I see the scrimmage revenue used by chapters to fund chapter officer stipends (mainly assigners) and other chapter incurred expenses. Very little used for the original purpose of recruitment and training. Maybe to pay for a subscription to Hudl, at best.
With all that said, I believe there could be an easy way to modify the scrimmage fee system where the schools paid the officials directly for a scrimmage fee and mileage and also paid the chapter a portion. There would need to be a maximum limit set so schools can budget. Officials certainly do not need to be paid a full game fee but, again, a small amount to help offset their own costs. Especially for the rookies who are just getting started and need to start recouping some of their invested expenses. My recommendation, pay the chapter $75 per scrimmage scheduled and $30/official for 1-6 officials then $20/official for 7-10 officials. If the scrimmage location is greater than 50 miles round trip, additional mileage should be considered. However, chapters need to cap the number of officials assigned a scrimmage. There's no reason for a scrimmage to have more than 10 officials on-site, only to have guys standing around most of the scrimmage. The only exception would be if the scrimmage is being used to train numerous rookies at each position. But for any official that shows up, works 5 plays, and then leaves, they do not deserve any compensation or reimbursement.
