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Show Football Of f iciating By JACK HILL Climbing the football officiating SJJer takes dedication, study and lick. Not necessarily in that order, iul all three ingredients are scessary. Officials usually begin by working isle league and sophomore games before moving to the high school cisity level. Many excellent officials never get Se opportunity or "break" to of-fate of-fate college ball. A few get the Ijtak" but lack of dedication cat-is cat-is up and they don't last long. I few of at least one who has all the ctdentials but chooses not to get into tiege officiating. After getting college assignments, tat goal is to get a full schedule. Sat means seven to 12 games. To do il, many officials work more than conference. The Big Sky Con-tee Con-tee offers that opportunity to my officials due to the league's Kgraphy. Officials in the PCAA, lit and PAC 10 fill in with Big Sky fees. .Officials receiving game assign-itnts assign-itnts in these leagues send their Vn dates to the Big Sky and most "given a few games in the Big Sky. fee the geography of the Big Sky "wives teams in five states, 65 different officials trom nine states are assigned to work games. This is about twice the number utilized by the three other conferences, but it is necessary when considering the travel costs. It would be much less expensive to use officials from the cities where games are played, but experience has shown that fans and players accept officials decisions easier if the officials of-ficials cannot be accused of "homering" the visiting team. Even though it is more expensive, using officials from outside the area has been better for everyone concerned. Pay for working games range from $125 in the Big Sky to $300 per game in the PAC 10. PCAA and WAC officials receive $200 per contest and each conference pays coach air fare from the officials home to the game site and back. The fee and number of games worked dictate that officials work at other jobs during the week and then scramble to make plane connections for Saturday games. This is also true of officials in the NFL. Rookies, or first year officials in the pro league, earn $350 per game and the fee goes up to $850 for officials who stay in the league. Pro officials also fly first class. With 17 games, they don't get rich, but it is certainly good weekend money. |