Be the Referee: Most Important Line
October 31, 2019
This week, MHSAA officials coordinator Sam Davis explains what the goal line means for offenses, defenses and special teams in high school football.
Be The Referee is a series of short messages designed to help educate people on the rules of different sports, to help them better understand the art of officiating, and to recruit officials.
Below is this week's segment - Most Important Line - Listen
There’s an old saying in football officiating that the most important line on the field is the goal line.
This is certainly true when it comes to touchdowns, as the high school rule is just like that at the college and pro level, where all the ball has to do is break the plane for the score.
One unique part of the goal line under high school rules deals with kicks. Whenever a kickoff or a punt breaks the plane of the goal line, it becomes a dead ball with an automatic touchback. Now, whenever the defense gets possession of the ball in the end zone, it can return a fumble or interception out of the end zone for advancement, except if it’s on an extra point or any time in overtime.
Past editions
Oct. 24: Automatic 1st Downs - Listen
Oct. 17: Catch Momentum - Listen
Oct. 10: Golf Rules Changes - Listen
Oct. 3: No Tackle Box - Listen
Sept. 26: You Make the Overtime Call - Listen
Sept. 19: Swimming Finishing Touch - Listen
Sept. 12: Curbing Gamesmanship By Substitution - Listen
Sept. 5: Football Safety Rules Changes - Listen
Aug. 29: 40-Second Play Clock - Listen
MHSAA TV Kickoff Returns Highlights
August 22, 2017
By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
Weekly statewide football highlights return to cable viewers across Michigan in 2017, with the Michigan High School Athletic Association and the State Champs! Sports Network teaming up to launch “MHSAA Extra Point” beginning this week.
The half hour program will feature highlights from more than a dozen games each week, including clips from games produced by MHSAA School Broadcast Program members. Lorne Plant and Daniella Bruce from the State Champs! Sports Network will host the show, which will air multiple times each weekend on FOX Sports Detroit and Comcast Channel 900 and be archived on the State Champs YouTube Channel. Consult your local listings for additional playback times.
Here is the projected list of games to be featured on this week’s first edition of MHSAA Extra Point:
- Belleville vs. Brighton at Ann Arbor
- DeWitt at Grand Rapids Christian
- Walled Lake Western vs. West Bloomfield at Detroit
- Davison vs. Southfield A&T at Detroit
- Rockford vs. Saline at Ann Arbor
- Rapid River vs. Powers North Central
- Lowell vs. Warren De La Salle at Detroit
- Detroit U-D Jesuit at Birmingham Brother Rice
- Ishpeming vs. Iron Mountain
- Byron at Montrose
- Lake Orion at Clinton Township Chippewa Valley
- Bay City Western at Traverse City Central
- Bay City John Glenn at Freeland
The MHSAA also will have a presence on State Champs! Network programming throughout each weekend with the “MHSAA Minute” making its debut on this Sunday’s (Aug. 26) edition of the weekly State Champs! High School Sports Show on FOX Sports Detroit at 9 a.m., with multiple replays on FOX Sports Detroit and Comcast Channel 900 throughout the week. The program also will be archived on the State Champs YouTube Channel. Consult your local listings for additional playback times.
This week’s MHSAA Minute is the first of a three-part series on football rules changes for 2017; the first edition talks about blind side blocks. The MHSAA also will have content on the State Champs Scoreboard! High School Football Radio Show on Friday nights during the football and basketball seasons, originating on WXYT-FM (97.1) in Detroit and being carried on more than 10 radio stations across the state.
The MHSAA.tv Website starts the 2017 football season in a big way this week, with the NFHS Network streaming 14 games over three days from the Vehicle City Gridiron Classic at Flint’s Atwood Stadium on Thursday (Aug. 24), the West Michigan Sports Commission Gridiron Classic at Grand Valley State University on Saturday (Aug. 26), and all three days of the Prep Kickoff Classic at Wayne State University, running Thursday through Saturday. The first two days of coverage at the PKC will be produced by the NFHS Network; Saturday’s games will be a live stream produced by Comcast to air on a delayed basis on Channel 900.
Topping off the weekend’s streaming activity will be a number of games produced by MHSAA School Broadcast Program members – including the first gridiron and volleyball events in Michigan to be streamed with a new product from the NFHS Network.
In its ninth year, the School Broadcast Program gives members an opportunity to showcase excellence in their schools by creating video programming of athletic and non-athletic events, with students gaining skills in announcing, camera operation, directing/producing and graphics. The program also gives schools the opportunity to raise money through advertising and viewing subscriptions.
A number of new schools are joining the program using an automated production solution – Pixellot – which was first installed in Michigan earlier this year at Otisville Lakeville. Most Pixellot schools will install their first unit in the gymnasium, but several schools – Novi, Freeland, Plainwell, Norway and Ovid-Elsie – also are installing a second unit at multi-purpose fields to cover sports like football, soccer and lacrosse. The Pixellot system requires only that a schedule be entered online to cover an event, making things like a basketball double or tripleheader easy to stream without staffing worries.
Freeland will use Pixellot to live stream a volleyball match with Bay City Western on Thursday at 1 p.m., followed by a football game against Bay City John Glenn at 7 p.m. Other Pixellot schools are Calumet, Fremont, Harrison, Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest and Otisville Lakeville.
All sporting events – live or delayed - are available on a subscription basis only for their first 72 hours online. They become available for free, on-demand viewing approximately 72 hours following their completion.
Here’s this week’s MHSAA.tv schedule of video streams being produced by SBP members:
Tuesday, Aug. 22
- Boys Soccer - Haslett at East Lansing – 6:30 p.m. (On-Demand)
Wednesday Aug. 23
- Freshman Football – Grand Rapids Northview at Comstock Park – 4:30 p.m.
- Junior Varsity Football – Grand Rapids Northview at Comstock Park – 6 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 24
- Football – Vehicle City Gridiron Classic – Flint
- Goodrich vs. Burton Bendle – 1 p.m.
- Flushing vs Linden – 4 p.m.
- Flint Carman-Ainsworth vs. Grand Blanc – 7 p.m.
- Prep Kickoff Classic – Detroit
- Walled Lake Western vs. West Bloomfield – 4 p.m.
- Davison vs. Southfield – 7 p.m.
- Girls Volleyball – Bay City Western at Freeland – 1 p.m. - Pixellot
- Football – Byron at Montrose – 7 p.m.
- Football – Lake Orion at Clinton Township Chippewa Valley – 7 p.m.
- Football – Bay City John Glenn at Freeland – 7 p.m. – Pixellot
- Football – Bay City Western at Traverse City Central – 7 p.m.
- Football – Haslett at Fowlerville - 7 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 25
- Prep Kickoff Classic – Detroit
- Almont vs. Grosse Ile – 4 p.m.
- Lowell vs. Warren DeLaSalle – 7 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 26
- West Michigan Sports Commission Gridiron Classic – Allendale
- Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian vs. Spring Lake – 10:30 a.m.
- East Kentwood vs. Macomb L'Anse Creuse North – 1:30 p.m.
- Kent City vs. Ravenna – 4:30 p.m.
- Greenville vs. North Farmington – 7:30 p.m.
- Prep Kickoff Classic – Detroit
- River Rouge vs. East English Village Prep – 12 p.m.
- Oak Park vs. Utica Eisenhower – 3 p.m.
- Detroit Martin Luther King vs. Indianapolis Cathedral – 6 p.m.
Tuesday, Aug. 29
- Boys Soccer - Grand Rapids West Catholic at Comstock Park – 6:45 p.m.
Wednesday, Aug. 30
- JV Boys Soccer – Whitehall at Plainwell – 4 p.m.
- Freshman Football – Breckenridge at Freeland – 4:30 p.m. – Pixellot
- Boys Soccer – Whitehall at Plainwell – 5:45 p.m.
- Junior Varsity Football – Chesaning at Freeland – 6 p.m. - Pixellot
NFHS Network subscriptions begin at $9.95 per month. Subscribers will have access to all live video and streaming statistics across the country. All content becomes available for free, on- demand viewing 72 hours after being shown live. School Broadcast Program participants will also be selling Season and Annual Passes at a discounted rate. A portion of every subscription sold by a school goes to benefit its program.
A complete list of participating schools can be found on the School Broadcast Program page of the MHSAA website.