For those of you who do not know, I am at a Division III school - UW Stevens Point - though I also catch some WCHA action on television. I am amused by the recent posts about "assoc. refs" not making calls. Div III uses the two referee system. I doubt these are the best refs (the best ones will obviously be doing Div I games, surely a more lucrative venture for them), and like any fan have screamed in dismay about non-calls on the opponents and bad calls against us. But you know what I have not seen? Inconsistency produced by having two referees. Say what you want, the 2 ref system is superior! There is just too much action going on for one person to see it all, and linesmen, by whatever title you give them, are just too reluctant to make the calls on everything they see. After all, its not really their job. FWIW, the refs names are anounced at the start of the game (sometimes, at least) but they don't have nametags. I suspect this cuts down on the number of specifically directed insults at them. Of course, their biggest problem will come later in life as they start to show the effects of heavy metal poisoning from all the metal whistles they swallowed during 3rd periods and OTs across their careers, but that's the subject of another post. My solution: Go to the two man system, always keep 3 person official teams together (but allow them to partner up to ensure some level of compatability) and rotate the job of 1 Linesman, 2 Refs continually. That is, each serves as a ref for 2 games, a linesman for one, and all 3 always get the same pay. Now you have a linesman who is used to calling penalties and enough eyes on the game to keep it more even. And if you find a dyad (or triad) who have different game philosophies, the league can tell them to straighten out their act or get lost. Let me shout that one statement again in different words: JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE TWO REFS DOES NOT MEAN YOU MUST PUT UP WITH INCONSISTENCY IN PENALTY CALLING. But, in my (admittedly) limited experience as a fan, it doesn't really seem to happen that much anyway. Tom Rowe [log in to unmask] =========================================== Home of Division 3 National Champion Pointers 89, 90, 91 & 93 =========================================== HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.