Is this taunting or simply moving your feet to get away from a tackle?

So how about the TD that OSU just scored? I thought the NCAA rule was if you committed an unsportsmanlike foul prior to crossing the goal line (high stepping, taunting etc.) they actually took the TD off the board? Never seen it happen but i thought that was the rule.

MrC said:

It is not reasonable to expect perfection from volunteers.

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They are not volunteers, they are paid.

Ski U Master said:

Referee retention is really difficult in my experience in various sports spending some time officiating. It's a difficult and thankless job that most are doing to maintain a connection to the sport and because they believe in amateur athletics. Coaches and parents treat refs like absolute trash, especially at the high school level. I refereed soccer from age 15 through about 22 and quit because the relatively small amount of cash was just not worth the abuse. I would bet that the #1 cause of referees quitting is treatment by coaches and parents. Oddly enough the players are usually the calmest of the bunch.

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Youth soccer refs actually make a pretty good wage, especially for the younger refs (teen through college-age). I don't know the exact number but I think it's probably at least double (maybe more) than they would make per hour at any other job that a teenager could work. Maybe for adults the pay isn't worth it compared to their normal jobs. I think if you are an adult reffing a lot though it's because you must really love reffing and the sport.

Unregistered User said:

They are not volunteers, they are paid.

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Point well taken.

But in a game full of judgement calls, paid or not, refs generally deserve the benefit of the doubt. (Pehaps the lower the pay, the stronger the benefit of the doubt.) In the OP, the ref made the split second call that the high stepping was taunting. I think it was a bad call, but have no reason to believe it was made in bad faith.

Having seen the abuse refs too often receive, I am grateful to be patently unqualified for that job at any level.

Terrible call

Officiating - like playing and coaching - falls along a continuum. There are good officials - average officials - and poor officials.

I am biased on this - my brother is a certified basketball referee, and I have a lot of friends who officiate various sports. Some of them are better than others, but I believe they are all trying to get it right.

As some of you know, I cover HS sports for a small-market radio station. I attend well over 100 sporting events in the course of a 9-month high school year. I see some calls that are questionable, but I really don't see a lot of truly bad calls - and I can't think of a single game I've covered that was "decided" by a bad call.

My brother had told me that he encounters a lot of coaches who don't know the rules - or at least don't understand how certain rules are enforced. Same with players. He says he never minds if a coach has a legitimate question. But, when you have coaches and players who flat-out don't understand the rules, then they start yelling at the refs, which gets the fans yelling. That's when refs say "this ***** ain't worth it." My brother used to do a lot of varsity games, but in recent years, he's backed off and mostly works lower-level games (FR, Junior varsity, Junior High, etc) because he still gets paid, and he generally has to deal with less BS from coaches and fans.

As far as the play in question, we don't know what might have happened earlier in the game, or at other games involving the same team and player. There may be history here we're not privy to. hard to judge one play taken out of context.

Word said:

Youth soccer refs actually make a pretty good wage, especially for the younger refs (teen through college-age). I don't know the exact number but I think it's probably at least double (maybe more) than they would make per hour at any other job that a teenager could work. Maybe for adults the pay isn't worth it compared to their normal jobs. I think if you are an adult reffing a lot though it's because you must really love reffing and the sport.

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Yeah, talking about adults who do this after work. The added income for many (not all) may be trivial compared to their 9-5 job and so it's easy to just drop it if the aggravation gets to be too high from parents/coaches.

Like I said, I reffed soccer from about age 15 until I was 22 and it was a great summer and college job. The money isn't bad at all, even games for the Minneapolis Park Board U10 age bracket paid something like $25-30 a game which was about 45-60 minutes of time. Not sure what the pay is today, this was about 15 years ago.

The official who threw that flag must be far to young to have ever seen Walter Payton play....

Yes officials are paid to officiate games and I agree that it is a great gig for younger aged, college, and youth. Adults most often do it for the love of the game. Officiating youth games allows you to show up 10-15 minutes before the game and do multiple games at about $25 an hour. However dealing with youth parents and coaches can be difficult and causes many to quit before experiencing higher levels.

Varsity games pay in the $75-$95 per game range depending on sport. However, you will travel greater distances, games take longer, and you have to be on site an hour before the game. Add in out of season meetings, uniforms, dues and meals and you're lucky to make $10 an hour.

I'm approaching 20 years of officiating and love it as much as I did when I started. It's about more than being paid.

I don’t know what the state high school rules are, however, it looks like the initial high step would have been acceptable. It was the continuation of the high step 10 yards more into the end zone. IMO it could have gone either way.