5 man to 6 man

[Yellow Flag]

I would like to throw a question out to anyone. We currently have a 5 man crew, but would like to get another official on our crew. I was thinking about going with a 6 man crew; however the high schools we cover will only pay for 5. Has or does anyone do the same thing? Do you give the 6 man a % of your check? Not sure if it will happen, but I would like to hear some input! Thanks from NW Ohio!

[TampaSteve]

to pay for #6,
1 - perhaps the 5 guys 'pool' some or all of each of their travel money & pay #6 with it.
2 - maybe dip into the Assn's kitty.
3 - Heck, maybe ask the schools the week of a game. - perhaps towards the end of the season, a team has a 'big game' & would be willing for 1 or even 2 extra officials.

[HLinNC]

We use the similar procedure in bumping 4 man JV to 5 although most schools that have approved us to use 5 man have went ahead and paid the extra man anyway.

[VALJ]

We've gone from 5 to 7 for as many games as possible (AAA games, in the city) over the past couple of years.  The schools contract with us per crew, not per official, so we've been dividing the 5-man crew fee 7 ways.  I believe, though I don't know for certain, that we've been working towards negotiating our fees to try and get the fees to where we get paid the same per official per game regardless of 7 or 5 man crew, but I don't know how well that's going to work.  I don't know that the city schools are going to be terribly willing to add 2 full officials to their per-game rate.

[Tom.OH]

I would like to throw a question out to anyone. We currently have a 5 man crew, but would like to get another official on our crew. I was thinking about going with a 6 man crew; however the high schools we cover will only pay for 5. Has or does anyone do the same thing? Do you give the 6 man a % of your check? Not sure if it will happen, but I would like to hear some input! Thanks from NW Ohio!

Yellow Flag, in Ohio we can only use 5 man crews to be considered for the playoffs. If you use 6 man the games will not count. I  am not sure if the Gold book covers this but we were told last year in our association meetings to not use 6 man mechanics.

Now we did have some crews work 6 man in years past. Some schools would pay full checks for all six. Some schools would pay 6 checks but only for 5/6 th of the game fee. Still others would only pay 5 checks at the full game fee and it was up to those 5 to pay the 6th man, not the best way...

[JasonTX]

Our chapter uses either 5 or 7 depending on the game and if the coaches don't mind us using 7.  Using 6 would not be an option for us because that leaves a opening in the middle.  We have never been rejected by a coach when we told them we'd be using 7.  All 7 got paid. 

[Yellow Flag]

Yellow Flag, in Ohio we can only use 5 man crews to be considered for the playoffs. If you use 6 man the games will not count. I  am not sure if the Gold book covers this but we were told last year in our association meetings to not use 6 man mechanics.

Now we did have some crews work 6 man in years past. Some schools would pay full checks for all six. Some schools would pay 6 checks but only for 5/6 th of the game fee. Still others would only pay 5 checks at the full game fee and it was up to those 5 to pay the 6th man, not the best way...

Ouch...that's the answer I was looking for! Thanks!!

[GoodScout]

I know the economy is tough, and I'm a big fan of 6-man over 5-man coverage, but I'm not a big fan of starting a precedent of giving school systems something they're not paying for.

[bafra31]

In Britain, we've long taken the view that the best thing for football is to have officials working games rather than sitting at home. As a consequence we often share 4 game fees between 5 officials or even 7. This is OK because our Manual of Football Officiating covers all crew sizes from 3-7 and we want our officials to have as much experience as possible of as large a crew as possible so that they can move up to bigger games that have 5 or 7-man crews as standard. The teams are always happy to have as big a crew as they can get - they see the advantages for the safety (and often education) of their players.

Working as an "extra man" is generally more popular than volunteering to do an assessment (for which a full game fee would be paid). Whether or not that's a good thing is debatable.