HS and College. During a TO, the game time on the clock goes off and the TO time displays, then when the TO is finished the game time is redisplayed. Is this legal? Is the game time supposed the be displayed at all times?

I kind of like it when the clock displays the timeout time remaining and counts down. Let's me know that the timer is on top of his job and I can see clearly the time remaining in the timeout. What harm is done by doing this?

There are many such score boards in my area. The Time Out is displayed counting down until it gets to zero (that's when clueless people yell out, "Hey, stop the clock!"). Then, when the TO is over, the game time is redisplayed. This should cause no problem or confusion (just in case) because the reporting referee will ensure that the time of the Time Out is recorded in the official book.

Another reason I like this is because sometimes the timer gets distracted if they are using a watch or some other way of timing the timeout and we end up standing there for what seems like forever because the timer forgets to keep an eye on the timeout time. Then I have to guess if it seems like we've gone over 20 seconds or 45 and it looks awkward. It also takes away any homer type timers that might tend to give a little extra time to the home team during their timeouts. I think it's a good thing.

McFly. McFly. That's what I wanted to say to one fan who kept reminding me that the clock was running. 0:48...0:47...0:46 I was even watching it run down for something to do. The fact that the game was less than two minutes old escaped the dumb fan.

This issue was raised because they said the rule book must display game time at all times.

huh?

Z

I thought we weren't supposed to bring the rule book out during a game.

Sorry, I was in a hurrrrry. The issue was raised because the rule in the rule book states the game clock must be displayed at all times.

And....what rule might that be? All NF 1-15 says is that a visible game clock is mandatory. That just means you have to have a clock.

Mark, I havn't had a chance to check the book. I was told this about a college game. Her referecne was the ncaa rule book.

Bart,
After a quick perusing of the book, I find no such rule. It says 'a visible game clock is required'. She may be interpreting that to mean the score is required to be visible at all times, which I think would be incorrect. Other than that I see nothing else on it. Sounds over-officious to me.

I agree, might be reading more into it than she should.

I like it unless the countdown can't be stopped. We have a clock like that at a local school. We had a TO, the clock switched to the 60 second countdown. But both teams were ready after about 40 seconds. The timer then told me we had to wait for it to finish b/c he couldn't make it go back to the game clock. sigh.

I don't really like it. I've found myself, once in a while, having to ask the timer how much time is left in the period before ducking into my timeout huddle. Late in a quarter, it is important to know the exact amount.