Running the clock out at the end of a game.....
 

Need some clarification. Had a game this weekend during a Turkey Bowl. Teams were using High School rules. Team A had the ball with approx. 1:05 left. 3rd Down. The ball was placed and whitsle blown ready for play. They ran the clock down 20 seconds and then took a false start penalty. The distance was walked off and the whitsle blown ready for place and the clock wound to start. So now they run it down another 20 seconds and then kneel the ball. Then the clock runs out and they win. My question is what's the rule for starting the clock after a false start? What keeps a team from doing false starts after the 2 minute mark and running out the clock with 25 seconds to snap after each infraction. One of the officials who was coaching said this was correct. I think it's unfair to the defense.

Sorry for the long explanation.

3.4.3.h

3.4.6

Referee's decision on when to start on RFP or snap. I think that I would have started on the snap after the intentional false start.

Thanks for the reference..............

Assuming you can tell the intent. This, to me, is a tough call. I would be more likely to start the clock on the snap if there was more than one consecutive false start. If I judged the first one as intentional, then I would go on the snap for sure.

In either case, I think you would be within the rules to go on the snap. It's just hard to judge intent sometimes.

IMO, false starting with less than 5 seconds left on the play clock would be on the snap if less than say 2 minutes to go and protecting a small lead.

it's pretty obvious that when they milk the play clock down to 5 secs and false start that it was intentional to conserve time. my old HS coach used to use this trick on naive referees to get the clock to wind down exactly like in the original play.

You don't want to give the team that violated the rules an advantage. Don't start the clock.

You don't have to know the intent. If they are ahead, and FS in the last 3 minutes, invoke the rule and tell the coach why the clock will start on the snap. A well coached team will not make it obvious what they are doing, but they have been coached to do it. If so, they will not gain an advantage, and if they were not doing so intetionally, they still will not gain an advantage. Either way, that is the way to go IMO.