College leagues are exploring new ways of working with referees on behalf of their members.
The experiments address the problem of securing trained officials without aggravating American rugby's general scarcity, which had been a primary worry about the university game's separation from the legacy territorial system, and also look to streamline administration.
'We recognize that local societies are short on refs, and are still trying to figure out how to transition from supporting a single union to supporting multiple conferences as well as [high school leagues]', one college official said.
The eight-team Atlantic Coast Rugby League is planning to assemble a panel of conference-accredited referees from the Potomac, Virginia, and Southeast societies, according to a league representative. The move specifically aims to the relocate responsibility for match officials from teams to the league office, which will shift compensation to an invoice system.
Drawing on traditional sources, the panel would include refs of all stature: level 1 officials for varsity matches, level 2s and 3s for touch judges and junior varsity games. The approach borrows from a system used by the Mid-Atlantic territory, which used to run a regional division league, the official said.
Similar plans have been discussed by the Southeastern conference, according to another official, which shares concerns about the impact on scholastic and senior matches, but also is considering whether the model could be applied to state high school leagues.
The Northeast conference, a division 2 organization that includes Holy Cross and Providence College, last fall employed a blended approach that saw both individual teams and the league work with New England referees. One outcome: Refs who have often been paid once per season received compensation more quickly, according to a third college official.
'I expect we'll continue to rely on a local society for some time as their ability to train and provide growth opportunities for referees is far above anything we can offer at this point', he observed.
Generally speaking, senior teams work individually with referee societies that are contiguous with local unions. The Super League, however, directly contracts nationally recognized officials.
"Drawing on traditional sources, the panel would include refs of all stature: level 1 officials for varsity matches, level 2s and 3s for touch judges and junior varsity games."
Kurt, Reverse this. Level 1 is the entry level. Level 3 is the National Panel types.
Posted by: Sergeant Hulka | 25 January 2012 at 10:37
@ Sergeant - Nope, it's not. Brand new referees are L4, then L3, L2, L1, then territorial or T. Only in the midwest do referee grades count down. In that system, 1 and 2 are international, 3 is NP, 4 Territorial, then 5, 6, 7, etc for newer referees.
Posted by: guest | 25 January 2012 at 10:45
@guest
You're actually incorrect about the Midwest. They follow the same grades as the national structure. They refer to referees as being able to handle match levels, however, which follow your reverse grading scale.
A level 8 or 9 match would be high school girls, while a level 4 match would be men's DI playoffs.
Posted by: Miracle Max | 25 January 2012 at 10:56
Don't let the L confuse you, it stands for Local, not Level.
Local Grades - Territorial Grades - National Grades
Posted by: Phil McCavity | 25 January 2012 at 12:35
At Guest: You've still got it scrambled. What your describing is a system of classifying a MATCH grade, not a REFEREE grade. Check my link for the referee Level system at USA Rugby.
Posted by: Sergeant Hulka | 25 January 2012 at 14:59
Referees are such douchebags. Way to scuttle over nothing you morons.
Posted by: Hot Dog Champ | 25 January 2012 at 15:45
@hotdog: You should remember that the next time there aren't enough referees in your society to cover your next match.
Posted by: Sergeant Hulka | 25 January 2012 at 17:34
@ Sergeant. Nope sorry, wrong again.
The link you suggested I follow leads to the courses a referee can take. The first course a referee takes is the Level 1 course. Upon completion of that course, a referee is assigned a grade of L4. Once they have been seen refereeing and are deemed able to referee a "safe" game (player safety) they are promoted to L3. There are then graduated promotion requirements for L2 and L1. Territorial Panel referees have another a set of qualifications. Completion of the Level 2 course is required for Territorial Panel (or was at one time, it may not be any longer), however, completion of the course does not mean promotion to L2, L1 or T.
The requirements of each of the grades are all in the referee grading manual, which also details the match levels.
and yes, we referees are douchebags. Thanks Kobayashi.
Check the link, then see the referee grading manual pdf at the bottom. The match levels are in the beginning and the requirements of each level are in the appendix.
Posted by: guest | 25 January 2012 at 18:21
Sgt Hulka, Guest is right. Don't get too hostile on this one. I have a feeling that he might be in a position to know what he is talking about.
Also note that not all regions of the US grade the refs the same way, thanks to the MidWest choosing to elect to grade their refs directly based on the match level. Not sure which region you are based in, so you might not have come across that one.
As far as Hot Dog Champ is concerned, congrats on being the typical pond scum that drifts around the outer reaches of American rugby. Heckle and abuse the ref, he's immune, he won't care. You don't realize that by making comments like that, you feed into the underlying reason why there are not enough refs. Simply put, people do not want to deal with your s***!
If you think that the existing crop of referees are morons then how about you pick up the whistle yourself and show the world what an amazing referee you can be? Assuming you have the balls to put your money where your mouth is.
Posted by: Phil McCavity | 25 January 2012 at 18:45
I want the 5 minutes it took to read this thread back.
Posted by: college | 25 January 2012 at 19:11
@Phil McCracken
You have it wrong about referee promotion...it's standardized. The Midwest does not promote directly based on match level. They follow the same promotion standards as everyone else.
Posted by: Miracle Max | 25 January 2012 at 19:40
I said nothing about promotion, I was simply referring to grades.
Posted by: Phil McCavity | 26 January 2012 at 07:08
In Kurt's article, he's referring to 3 levels of referee grades, so that's what what I gather he meant in his article. I'm extremely familiar with the referee promotion system. You can be a 'Level 2' referee and still be a 'L1' or 'Local 1'. A Level 3 ref may still be a T panel ref and not a National panel or Focus Panel. Using the Levels for assignments give a bit more leway in assigning referees as a certain conference may not have an abundance of Territorial or National panel referees, or any available after the D1-A college and Super League seasons are in play.
Posted by: Sergeant Hulka | 26 January 2012 at 08:50
Guest: read your link after I posted. Again as I stated before, those are MATCH levels, not REFEREE levels. A 'match' referrs to the level of competition on the field. The L2 and L1 in the body of the report are 'Local 2' and 'Local 1' not 'Level 2' and Level 1'. My certificate says, "Level 2 Officiating Accreditation." I believe we are all correct in our thinking, just getting the termination and context twisted.
Posted by: Sergeant Hulka | 26 January 2012 at 09:24
I agree with "college", except I probably would have just wasted those five minutes anyway looking at clopclop porn.
Posted by: Stay Gold, Ponyboy | 26 January 2012 at 09:46
It sounds to me like you have a union problem. I think unions have become passee
Posted by: john Bauer | 26 January 2012 at 11:11
@ Jack Bauer,
Either way you need someone to organize allocation of referees.
Posted by: Hugh G. Reckshun | 26 January 2012 at 12:01