State Sportsmanship Concerns

[Corndog89]

I teach at a Las Vegas high school. This morning I received the following from our athletic director regarding the NIAA (Nevada Interscholastic Athletic Assoc) and its concerns with blowout games. The comments and recommendations below are directly from the memo.

Sportsmanship:
Eddie XXXXX from the NIAA was at the meeting and said that his office had been inundated with letters attempting to explain victories of 50 or more points in basketball. Most of the letters have been coming from the middle school level.

Recommendations from the NIAA:
- Start your substitutes against weaker teams
- Give all non-starters more playing time
- Start players in unfamiliar positions
- Remove all starters when you are ahead by more than 30 points
- Play a tight zone defense when you are winning by more than 30 points
- Do not play man-to-man defense with on-ball pressure when you are winning by more than 30 points
- Do not allow fast breaks when you are ahead by more than 30 points
- Do not allow three point shots when you are ahead by more than 30 points
- Require a minimum number of passes on offense (4 or 5) when you are winning by more than 30 points
- Never press a team when up by 30 points or more
- No trapping when you are ahead by 30 or more points
- Play as many players as possible
- Agree to a running clock. This is something that the NIAA is considering instituting in basketball, much like they have in football (mandatory running clock once you are 30 or more points ahead in the fourth quarter)

If you know you are going up against a much weaker team, it is easier to play a slower paced game from the beginning than it is to try and slow a game down when you are already up by 30 or more points

Do any of the states you work in make such recommendations or have such rules? Is it just me or does this seem like too much/unneccessary oversight and regulation? And please don't misconstrue that to mean I'm against sportmanship or coaches using good judgement during a blowout. I think these are all good ideas. But by high school (and yes, I realize most of the concern over 50+ point blowouts in this memo are from middle school games, but the message was delivered to high schools as well) shouldn't the game be about competition, not self-esteem? And shouldn't individual coaches (and perhaps their school's athletic director and/or principal) determine how they want to play a game even if ahead by 50 points? Am I way off base here?