NFHS Survey up

[TXMike]

Originally Posted by Robert Goodman

Eliminating the try would considerably shorten the rule book, simplify scoring, shorten games, and finally get rid of something that was on an asymptotic trend toward elimination until it was reversed 50 years ago. The try is a way to decide games via a fluke. No other major game (unless it's a relative -- rugby) provides an opp'ty for a minor score following a major score.

Robert

Where do you get the info from re the trend towards eliminating the try. I do not read it that way in Nelson's book. The try has been in since the game's inception (I suspect owing to the game's spinning off from rugby). I see where there were many discussions and changes related to where try would be attempted from and point values but nothing related to the elimination of the try.

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by TXMike

Where do you get the info from re the trend towards eliminating the try. I do not read it that way in Nelson's book. The try has been in since the game's inception (I suspect owing to the game's spinning off from rugby). I see where there were many discussions and changes related to where try would be attempted from and point values but nothing related to the elimination of the try.

The try originally started as a continuation from a punt-out (and potentially a series of punt-ons), so abolishing that (which was done earlier in Rugby Union than in American or Canadian football) reduced the try to a much simpler and less time consuming affair. I call that a step toward elimination.

Then, the fact that the try became a kind of digression from the game, rather than a link in a scoring effort, reduced its importance, so I call that another step toward elimination.

The reduction in scoring value of the try vs. the touchdown that caused it to be awarded, I call a step toward elimination. From the time an unconverted try first got a scoring value, until the 2 point conversion was introduced, that ratio had declined from 2:1 to 1:6 -- a factor of 12 -- so is it much of a stretch to project that trend down to 0?

Robert