In Hindsight...

[blindref757]

Looking back at the past year, would we have been better off to have just allowed the UIL to lock us out and force a real negotiation...or is the current path of the lawsuit the best path?  Would we have been better off to keep our money and our sovereignty out of the hands of those who really have no vested interest in our fate (lawyers and judges)?

[TXMike]

You are fooling yourself if you think there would have been a "lockout".  Way too many guys would have done whatever it took to ref games. 

[Welpe]

You are fooling yourself if you think there would have been a "lockout".  Way too many guys would have done whatever it took to ref games.

Yessir.

[Joe Stack]

Mike, I hate to tell you, but it isn't just people that are looking for a way to jump on a game -- any game. Many I know, including 25, 30 year veterans with solid regular season schedules and 4A/5A state championships under their belt had the view of, "I'm here to work football; if I need to sign up with UIL, so be it." We can't pretend that the only ones who would have worked were those with sour attitudes who weren't working the schedules they thought they deserved.

TASO football doesn't have the solidarity (and I hate that term because I'm about as anti-union as it gets) that is needed and nowhere near what baseball seems to have. Whether it was opportunists or people who just didn't think TASO was worth sitting out games for, there was no way a lockout or boycott would have happened or been effective. Maybe locally or regionally, but not all over the state. In my view, there are too many "fat and happy" football officials around Texas -- those who think that their 20 regular season and 8 5A playoff games (making $150 a game minimum) are sufficient for them and everyone else is on their own. Who cares if baseball or basketball has to settle for $45 for a varsity game. If you don't think this attitude is present in certain areas, you're kidding yourself.

If you want to do hindsight, you have to go back 5 years or more. Get rid of the then ED, which is what basketball wanted. Basketball threatened to leave, UIL with football's help, pulled the rug out from under them -- then after regime change at UIL, they saw a money making and power grab opportunity. So football didn't support either basketball OR baseball in either's tassel with TASO and UIL. Worse, football allowed itself to be used by UIL.

Basketball is now finding out that the grass wasn't greener on UIL's side. But for a lot of reasons, they will still give TASO the finger -- and frankly, given the way some of their directors were treated by TASO, I can't blame them.

Sorry, but you asked.

[JasonTX]

Basketball is now finding out that the grass wasn't greener on UIL's side. But for a lot of reasons, they will still give TASO the finger --

The guys I know in the basketball chapter here have the same feelings.  They are fed up with the UIL.  What did it take, 1 year?  I'm not sure they are giving TASO the finger as you put it, but they are definitly regretting their decision to join UIL.  This season will be interesting with Basketball.  Stay tuned.

[Joe Stack]

Jason, the finger comment was about the basketball leadership -- the guys that were directly involved in the original fiasco with TASO and the ED. UIL sent out emails about TASO's legislative attempts and some of the emails I received were written by one of more of the people involved. I don't think I overstated it, but I didn't mean to imply that everyone in basketball feels the same way.

Thanks for confirming the info I have is similar in your neck of the woods.

[TexDoc]

Joe, maybe you have some insight about basketball.  I never have understood, what exactly is their problem and what is it that they want and are not getting?  If it is the pay disparity between football and basketball, they have little standing to argue.  Basketball doesn't exactly make money for the schools like football.  If that isn't it, then what is it?

[blindref757]

If I recall, one of the biggest issues was that the Big 5 basketball chapters wanted more regional and state tournament bids.  They didn't like it that small chapters got a state tourney slot with a representation of 100 members, and they only got 1 slot with a membership of 800. 

[TexDoc]

Sounds like a reasonable request. But that doesn't have anything to do with TASO.

[Joe Stack]

There were many issues, and I'm not even sure I know about all of them. I don't think playoff games had any factor.

One of the biggest issues was that basketball was the largest TASO sport and felt it deserved more than 1/6th of a vote on the overall board. With or without that, they felt like they should control their own budget, be it 1/6th or whatever their equitable position within TASO was. They were also concerned about some financial mismanagement by the then ED. There was no real cooperation between the basketball board and either the ED or the all sport board. Not until the end was the TASO board even willing to listen to basketball's issues.

The ED was responsible for paying out, from what I understand, unauthorized bonuses to TASO staff. He sent out notices to TASO members using basketball's budget without the basketball board's approval -- which may have been OK, but the notices were somewhat different than the message the board had for the members. I don't recall specific details, but these and other issues lead the basketball board to demand the ED's removal. Given his recent personal issues, that did not seem like a big request, but the ED was able to "buy" support from football by making good with long time Texas football officiating giants. I'm not going to name names; you can ask others, but for some reason, the football leadership lead TASO to retain the ED prior to firing him about a year and a half later. By then, basketball had made inroads with UIL, leading to the mess we're in now. This doesn't even get into the issues baseball created with demanding increased fees. The TASO leadership, I understand, didn't back them either.

The problem we have with TASO is that football officials aren't too concerned with basketball (or any other sport) unless they work that sport. The same is true with other sports. We need an attitude change that says while I may not work volleyball, if VB or BB, or hoops gets screwed, we in football need to back them up.

[El Macman]

I don't recall specific details, but these and other issues lead the basketball board to demand the ED's removal.

Hmmm. And I could have sworn he was pushed for the position by the BB side, because he was a BB guy. Was he not?

[Joe Stack]

That was the interesting thing: he WAS a basketball guy. But he was able to align himself with people high up the food chain in football due to who he hired at the office. Not mentioning names here; if you want to know more, I'm sure there are others who can fill you in.

As far as who brought him in to the position, I don't know.

[Arbitrator]

 

Bottom line is that the  Good UIL Dr. and his "Supe-r" friends have their eye on the prize and that is to bring Texas back to the dark ages of officiating where all that one received for their officiating services was a meager game fee with either no mileage or a token amount added which definitely would add to the school district's profit margin. If you don't believe that, look at UIL Basketball. That's exactly what the  UIL Ringmaster had in mind when he launched this takeover plan of his; to bring Texas into the National Federation payroll mode where there is no gate structure and the officials will work the games pretty much for peanuts. And while a select few may happen to feel that TASO is politically motivated, all I can say is that compared to the agenda that the Manor Road Crowd has up their sleeve, well, you ain't seen nothing yet!   

[rsquare]

For basics - those caps worn in playoffs that had uil on it were cheesey lookin'
Do as obama/rome says when there I guess....

[blindref757]

I'm not a UIL guy, but the gate system sucks unless you are a well known crew in one of the Big 5 chapters.  Football should have a flat rate based on the number of A's.  The UIL pay scale would be a blessing to baseball umps...what we make now is a joke!

[JasonTX]

I'm not a UIL guy, but the gate system sucks unless you are a well known crew in one of the Big 5 chapters.  Football should have a flat rate based on the number of A's.  The UIL pay scale would be a blessing to baseball umps...what we make now is a joke!

I would be against the flat rate.  I can work 1a game and bring in at least $80.00 not counting mileage.  It all depends on how many fans you get.  I'm not a "well known crew" nor am I in a "Big 5" chapter and I bet I can make just as much as any of them.  It all depends on if the schools are paying correctly, not who you are.

[Arbitrator]

 

The most prevalent issue is that the  Good UIL Dr. and his numerous   "Supe-r Sweethearts" are both blatently ignoring the gate structure that is listed in 1204 and seemingly paying officials whatever it is that they want to pay. And this is really old news. And furthermore, it has been going on ever since the  Buna Basketball Coach finally found himself ascended up to the UIL throneroom. With extremely rare exception, few, if any, officials have ever received their just compensation from the  Manor Road Crowd whether their grievance was directly filed by them, their TASO Chapter, their respective District Directors, or even the TASO State Office. From personal experience, any of these grievances that I have filed have virtually gone unattended by Manor Road, who almost always will tell the folks filing those grievances to take it up with the individual school districts, that that is just not within the perameters of their jurisdiction. This enables those "Supes" who want to low-ball the revenue reports from the games to do just that and to pay the officials a $75.00 game fee for a 10,000+ gate for a big regular season game. With all due respect, there are several of the honest Supes and AD's who rigorously adhere to paying justly from the 1204 scale and for that, they should be richly commended. But the  Good UIL Dr. and his  Manor Road Minions seem to be snuggled-up in bed with the "low-ballers"; and if the UIL were to ever be rewarded with taking over TASO and football officiating in general, then those of us who would want to continue to officiate high-school football would find themselves cowtowing to the UIL/Supe's lines of suddenly having to work for substandard National Federation State fees. And then all that most officials could do would be to worry about what kind of a number they could draw out of the Manor Road "Take-A-Number" Machine to see exactly how good of a number they could draw to be able to get a favorable place in line to kiss the derrieres of the    the Good UIL Dr. and his Dancing Monkey for the opportunity of procuring one of those December JerryWorld games and one of their "cheesy" UIL souvenir caps!   

[clearwall]

I'm reminded of a poem about the players preparing all week, coaches drawing up a great game plan, the crowd filing in, the band getting everyone excited, cheerleaders pumping up the crowd, and finally when everyone is ready to kick off and go nuts...there are no officials at the stadium. Because in the end, a game without officials is just practice.

[JasonTX]

I'm reminded of a poem about the players preparing all week, coaches drawing up a great game plan, the crowd filing in, the band getting everyone excited, cheerleaders pumping up the crowd, and finally when everyone is ready to kick off and go nuts...there are no officials at the stadium. Because in the end, a game without officials is just practice.

This happened to a school we cover, who was playing a "neutral site" game.  When all that was taking place with everyone getting pumped up etc.  Coach realized he forgot to secure officials for the game at that site.  He was planning on using that local chapter but he never did call them.  I would hate to be in his shoes.  They ended up putting coaches on the field and one of our members who was a parent only assisted them with penalty enforcement.  It certainly wouldn't be pretty if that happened every week.