State

[Mike Simonds]

Here in Hawaii if one team is ahead by 35 points or more:

Regular timing rules apply to the first half.

At the beginning of the second half, the clock will start to run on the referee's ready for play (I need to check if this applies to free-kicks also) and will only be stopped for: an official's time-out, to administer a penalty, an injury time-out, scores, and at the end of the third quarter.

If the point differential becomes less than 35 points at any time during the second half then the normal timing rules are enforced again.

I'd like to see more clarification on this rule such as the following: for incomplete passes does the clock stop to retrieve and reset the ball and then restart on the ready for play? I believe that its up to the referee's discretion on situations like this but I need to research this a bit more.

This year we only had one or two games that the mercy rule came into effect. There was good parity in the league this year.