FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[4852lkrick]

Regarding the officiating of the Trine/Albion game...  how about the one where Albion had four guys jump on defense and were still in the neutral zone when the ball was snapped and no flag...

And the one who got called for calling fair catch was my son...  Said he was doing no such thing - lined up just like his corner position on punt returns and was blocking the whole way down the field.  Interested in the real ruling for that one too.

If by chance (just a chance  just throwing this out:  If Adrian wins their next two games and both Adrian and Trine go 5-1, who receives the playoff bid?  Adrian, because they won the head to head?  Or overall record?  Thanks.

Weather for Saturday is currently looking great!

[Mr. Ypsi]

Don't know for the MIAA specifically, but I don't know of any conference where head-to-head is not the first tie break.

[BoredatWork56]

But even the big guys at DI with cameras on them at all times make missed calls or make wrong calls.  Its a part of the game that is just as expected as the opening kick off. 

Football is the best sport in the world and I hate to see people get caught up in officiating.  Its almost a little demening to the sport. 

BOYA-

I know that bad calls happen, and that they are expected in every game. No one is perfect.  And i know there is going to be fans second guessing calls after every game. I agree with your thought of not liking people who get caught up in the officiating, and blaming that on the outcome of the game. I just would like to see more games where you can say "that was a bad call", instead of "that was a bad crew".   

[Uncle Rico]

Do the MIAA officials get rated like they do in the MHSAA (Michigan High School Athletic Association)?  Score cards are turned in after every game by the teams.  Even in our youth football program, we use MHSAA officials and turn in score cards.  I would like to think the governing body of the MIAA does something similar, and rewards officials who score high, and works on further training of officials to help make them better.  

We all make mistakes, as officials, coaches, parents and players.  With some type of scorecard system at least super performers can be identified and officials who are struggling can get more attention.

[altor]

Albion is punting to Trine and the Trine punt returner catches the ball and starts to the sideline on what looked like a promising return when the play was blown dead.  The Back Judge claimed that another player on the reutrn team made a fair catch signal and therefor the ball was dead upon the catch.  I had no idea that anybody else besides the person catching the ball could make a fair catch signal, espically an anti gunner who was blocking for the entire play.  Now, I haven't checked the rule book on this one, so if the call was correct, please let me know.

Yes, anybody on Team R can make a fair catch signal.

There was two calls made by the line judge on the home sidelines that seemed very questionable.  One was when Albion was on offense.  Albion had a WR in motion across the formation when the running back came out of his stance, took a step, then came back to his stance.  To me, this was either a false start or two men in motion.  Instead, the offical did nothing for about 5 seconds before awarding Albion a time out called from the sideline.  Again, if this was the correct call, please correct me.

An illegal shift (two men in motion, without coming set) would not be flagged until the snap and does not cause the play to be immediately blown dead.  If the official did not rule it a false start, he would not have any reason to call anything because the other WR in motion always has the opportunity to come set himself before the snap.

The last call came from the same official.  Trine was on offense.  They pitched the ball to a running back who fumbled the pitch, then picked it up and made a move to the outside picking up a few yards when the play was called dead because the dropped pitch was called an incomplete forward pass.  I had a pretty good view from the sideline to see that the pitch was not forward.  but that is not my issue with the play.  If the official thought the ball was an incomplete pass, the call should have been made immediatly, not after the ball was picked up and advanced down the field on what could have been a very big play.

First, I've also noticed that forward/backward passes are not always called correctly.  I personally give the officials a break on this because of the parallax involved.  The head linesman and line judge simply are not in a good position to make that call, but they are the only ones who are even close.  That's a much easier call to make from the stands.

Second, I've noticed football officials no longer carry the whistle in their mouth, probably because of too many inadvertent whistles.  So, it takes a second or two for an official to put the whistle into his mouth and blow the play dead.  Also, most crews have mechanics to tell each other if it was forward or backward, so he may have been looking to his teammates to see if any of them had ruled it forward or backward before he blew the play dead himself.  This would also take a second or two.

[ADAWGISADAWG4LIFE]

unclerico:

Each MIAA head coach fills out an evaluation form on the officials after each game, its standard procedure.

MIAA tie breaker in the event of a league tie I believe goes head to head, than it may go most points etc, not sure but I do know for naming a champ there is no tie breaker, only split champions for the playoffs is where the tie breaker comes in obviously.  However I do believe there is some sort of who ever hasnt been to the playoffs longest in the event of a tie in all categories takes place.  THis may be the case if a situation arose where lets say Albion, Adrian and Trine had all finished with one loss, Adrian losing to Albion, Trine losing to Adrian and Albion losing to Trine then it goes further down the list and I believe potentially to whoever hadnt been there the longest.

Trine guys:

I will be heading down to the game this saturday, hows the parking situation down there these days should I plan on getting there early?

[BOYA87]

ADAWG,

The parking hasnt been too horrible this year, although I always park in the Trine tailgating area so its hard to tell.  Again the whole season comes down to this last week (not to undermind everything else that has been accomplished this year).  Especially with the way the game between Adrian and Trine went last year I expect there to be a huge Trine and Adrian support so I would always suggest getting there early.  Plus, if the weather is cold it wouldnt hurt to get some coco in you before the game.

I cant wait for this weeks game!  Hopefully the weather is nice so we can really see these teams talents shine.  Hopefully we will see some more scoring than last years game. (I was afraid that game would end 2-0)

[BoredatWork56]

altor

Thanks for clearing that up.  I am happy to hear that the calls, which looked questionable on the surface, have a fairly simple explanation.

[ADAWGISADAWG4LIFE]

BOYA87:

Dont expect to much from Adrian fans, they travel well because of the parents who are the ones that truly care and are invested, but if there was one word to describe the student body towards football as a fan base it would be apathetic.  It is really dissapointing to go to games and see the "student section" all but empty and an overhwhelming lack of students to be seen that arent on the sideline or in the band.  Its really a sad site to see as good as the program has been for the last 6 years and with the stadium moved to campus the students still dont come out.

[formerd3db]

DAWG:

Sorry for the delay in this reply post to yours, however, after the game Saturday, I was out-of-town for the remainder of the weekend until this evening.  Anyway, my take on the Hope/Olivet game:  overall, I thought it was a good game.  Not at pretty win for Hope, but we'll take it!  I think Olivet has a good team; fast offense, big offensive linemen, and their defense has some really good players, especially at LB and DB (unfortunately, they will lose some of those people due to their being seniors this year).  Olivet could have won the game, they missed a couple of key opportunities yet did tie it at 14-14 at one point.  On the other hand, Hope had a couple of opportunities to put it out of reach - should have had probably two other TD's - a minor controversy regarding the time clock at the end of the half with Hope on about the 1 yard line.  Olivet has two good QB's (their starter unfortunately sustained a knee injury during the game and was out for the remainder, some good RB's, WR are fast but I think Hope's secondary did a much better job than in some of their previous games.  To summarize Olivet in short, I think they are like Hope this year i.e. with a couple of breaks here and there, they could have won the game and I'm sure some of their other games this year.  As many people said about Hope earlier in the season before we won our first game, Hope was probably the best winless team in the nation at that time - I think the same can be said about Olivet.  IMO, they are not an 0-8 team talentwise and they do have a good coaching staff.

It was a good and much needed win for Hope.  Now on to Alma this upcoming weekend.  I hope you enjoy your weekend at Trine - Adrian will have to bring their "A" game to beat them at this point I believe.

As I mentioned to their SID on Sat (a great guy BTW - seriously), I was impressed with the facilities for Olivet (I've seen them before, but nice synthetic turf, press box and stands on each side.  Their new basketball/vollyball complex addition to the Cutler Athletic Complex is nice as well.  I also thought their home crowd support was good to see despite their losing season.  Although their home attendance has been paltry this season  in the 500+ range (that's what happens in a losing season obviously) with the exception of having a nice homecoming crowd of nearly 2400 - their fans are really supportive and made a lot of noise in cheering them.  Weather was cold, but rain held off and the sun peaked through about 3 times during the course of the afternoon for about 2-3 minutes each time.  It would have been nicer except for the wind which made it colder with the wind chill.  Also, a nice following of Hope fans to the game.

[formerd3db]

My picks for Saturday are:

Albiona @ Trine - Trine

Adrian @ Alma - Adrian

Hope @ Olivet - Hope

Former3db,

Your picks were corrent, looks like Trine will win the MIAA, glad Hope won
again!

Thanks Raider 68.  Looks like I kind of lucked out this time!   We'll see what happens this weekend.

[formerd3db]

A good and legit discussion on the officiated in the Trine game.  I won't make any general comments on officiating as for one, I obviously didn't see the game, and second, I think you've all covered that quite well and, third, we discussed the MIAA officiating this year in general earlier.  Hope/Olivet game officiating was decent - they missed several holding calls, but were consistent overall IMO.

[HOF]

ADAWG:

Word in the MIAA is if AC doesn't win, their staff is possibly going to be let go?  Is this rumors?  Seems to me this has been mentioned in years before as well.  If true, that is sad.  Facilities or not, no president should let go a D3 coach, who keeps the schools enrollment up with recruiting 100 kids, like Jim Lyall has done for what, 18 years.   I imagine a guy like Coach Lyall who has been at Adrian for so long, has the support of former players, right?

I look forward to hearing from you.

[LetItRain]

Trine guys:

I will be heading down to the game this saturday, hows the parking situation down there these days should I plan on getting there early?

There is adequate parking behind the tailgate area (South side of football field).  The entrance into the parking area is next to the railroad tracks off Park Ave. and usually has an "Event Parking" sign posted.

FYI - Trine does not allow entry into the stadium until noon.  People start lining up about 11:45 AM to get in to get their preferred seats.  Visitors need to go to the main entrance/ticket area (there's a "tailgate" entrance for the Thunder Club members). 

Looking forward to a good game on Saturday.  Adrian is always tough but Trine needs to pull this one out to get back to the playoffs again.

[BOYA87]

ADAWG,

Thats a shame to hear about the student support for Adrian.  I thought at last years championship game there was a good student turnout in the north endzone at least.  But perhaps that was simply because it was a big home game to end the year.

I am overwhelmed with the support Trine has grown over the past couple of years in its athletics.  Not only football but it seemed like volleyball and basketball games had grown quite a bit in attendance as well.  It was some experience for me to go from playing in front of a couple hundered parents in the stands one year to playing in front of 5 thousand + parents, friends, students, and community members.  After going undefeated last year in the regular season, the Angola mayor even declared a day as "Trine University Football Day".  It just goes to show the kind of support that goes around in the Angola area. 

I hope it all isnt a bandwagon effect and that the support always continues.  I also hope Adrian can figure out a way to gain more involvment with its students.  The student body is the hearbeat of any campus and its always a little disheartening to athletes and the community if that heartbeat is weak.