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Subject: REFEREE COMPLAINTS 1) Officiating complaints need to be directed to the league via email by the coach. 2) I addressed the reasons why the forfeit rules are the way they are, and that this was voted on by coaches. The rules were changed to allow teams to play with 6 - and this cut down on more than half of all forfeits. Previously, you had a 15 minute grace period (at the other coaches discretion) to get 8 guys there and most of the time that didn`t happen. The problem with playing 8 vs. less than 8 is that you`ll get inflated scores which lead to inaccurate comparisons when you look at the tie-breakers come playoff time. The flip side is that the teams at least get to play.  Believe it or not, many coaches used to opt for the forfeit win instead of allowing the grace period for other team to get 8. This has nothing to do with the officials being eager to call a game, they are just following rules in place as voted by the coaches. In this off-season we will add forfeit issues to a list of items for coaches to vote on and let the coaches decide on several options. For now, we talked this over and for the remainder of the season we`re going to allow a 10 minute grace period to get 6 guys to the field after gametime, but as soon as you have 6 there the game starts and you kickoff both halves. You cannot take the grace period because you only have 6 and want to get more players there before starting. Also keep in mind that if you can only put 5 players on the field at anytime the game is over at that point and it is a forfeit loss. For example, you are playing with 6 and someone (1) gets ejected, (2) injured and has to leave the field for an extended period (longer than a team time-out), game is over.