I’ve played in my fair share of intramural games and have been to the beaten-up Intramural Field plenty of times. But, to be honest, I never thought much of it.
Especially now, in the midst of fewer classes, increased fees and budget cuts, having quality referees on a large, fairly grassy field has never been my top priority … behind school, my faith, family, friends, the Daily Bruin, the quality of De Neve pizza, my dinner this coming Thursday, and probably a few other things.
But after a little flag football at USC’s joke of an IM Field, I’ve come to realize how fortunate we are at UCLA to have a legitimate field with quality referees and official National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association flag football rules.
NIRSA has some silly regulations, such as specific limitations on screen-blocking and that blasted no-shorts-with-pockets rule, but I can deal with that.
I’ve never been one to demand stringent adherence to rules in a pick-up flag football game, but when it comes to making the game fun and fair, some rule consistency helps.
USC’s IM program uses a different system of rules, prohibiting the use of blockers or a backfield, which forces the entire defense to cover receivers.
In addition, they have only two referees, who, from my observations, showed limited training in comparison to UCLA’s refs. They were doing the best job they could, given the situation, but having two refs call a seven-man flag football game under the lights is just asking for missed calls.
Imagine if the NFL’s rules and number of referees varied based on the location of the game. Ridiculous.
On top of that, they don’t allow cleats on their almost grassless field that is barely the size of a single flag football field. What’s the point of a grass field if you can’t wear cleats? The whole game just becomes a slip-and-slide.
Here, we can have three games going on a mostly green field, with plenty of extra space to warm up and scrimmage, and UCLA Recreation allows cleats on the IM field.
On top of that, the three referees, donning crisp black and white stripes, come in with more effective training and oversight by supervisors present at each game.
The refs here aren’t perfect either, but that third ref and the training sure go a long way to make games more enjoyable. Fewer calls are missed, and the game flow is much better.
Obviously, bad officiating would affect both teams equally, but it also takes a lot of fun out of the game.
Poor officiating and non-regulation rules can turn an organized, strategic game of flag football into a quagmire of receivers clustered 15 yards down field from the line of scrimmage.
This is not something that makes this university superior to our rivals across town. There are plenty of other things that do, but it sure is something to be thankful for.
And as small a thing as it is to have quality IM sports at a gigantic research university of about 40,000 students, I have learned to appreciate it after having seen the abilities of the recreation department of that other Los Angeles university.
If you have memorized the NIRSA rule book for flag football, e-mail Mashhood at fmashhood@media.ucla.edu.