Here is what you will get early in the two referee system. A young (weak) referee will be paired with an veteran (strong) referee so that the former (most likely an ex-linesman) can learn the ropes. This means the young one will not challenge the veteran one and will not make any calls. Since one ref is in front of the play and the other behind, you get very inconsistent calls (either alot or none at all, but all by the veteran ref). Then the more brazen of the young ones will start to assert themselves and by the end of the season some balance is achieved, but the young ones will make a ton of mistakes along the way. It is not initially a two referee system, but a one ref and one intern system.

Despite the fact that most referees are not popular, nor should they be, there does not seem to be alot of turnover in the ranks, which is a great thing. Rapid turnover would make the current situation worse, so despite the existence of bad referees out there, they are there and continue to be there. The solution to that problems is to not give them the big games. There are bad teams and bad games out there and that is the place for the bad (some old, some fat, some just dumb, and others blind) referees. It is up to the referee scheduler to give the best referees the best games and to keep them correctly ranked from top to bottom. Unfortunately favoritism rears its ugly head here.

Nathan Hampton
________________________________________
From: - Hockey-L - The College Hockey Discussion List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark Lewin [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2008 9:38 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: NCAA rules committee

This, of course, is the crux of the matter.  While I agree with what they
are trying to do (which is get another pair of eyes on the ice  to better
and consistently enforce the rules), the problem becomes trying to figure
out two referees instead of one.  While each ref is different, the players
usually are able to determine what each ref will or won't allow and adjust
their play accordingly.  How will they do that with two refs who's style may
be contrary to one another's ?

On Sun, Jun 8, 2008 at 10:13 AM, Todd Nielson <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Speaking as someone who follows ECAC hockey closest (and therefore can't
> say
> much about the other conferences), we have a hard enough time finding
> enough
> quality, consistent referees with the current system.  Where are competent
> second referee's going to come from?
>
>