Since a team is allowed to forfeit at any time, why is a TKO necessary? Is it just supposed to be a face saver for the coaches for their players? "I'd've liked to have subbed you in, but we ran out of time."

How long do you think a coach who forfeited a game would last. Seriously. You've outdone yourself here. I don't believe any team is "allowed", as far as their district or school is concerned, to forfeit "at any time."

Nevada Mercy Rule

Ours is 45 points. From what I hear it used to be lower, but coaches wanted an opportunity to get their subs in, so the spread between 35 and 45 allows them to take that risk and let the losing team close the gap without costing them a game.

We still get quite a few games mercy ruled by the middle of the 3rd.

We have a 40 point rule in the second half. The clock runs the entire time in the second half until a score, a time out, and injury timeout. Game goes by really fast at that point. Once you ring the bell, you cannot go back to a normal clock.

Peace

And this is a great piece I wish we'd add. Closing the gap to 34 points in the middle of the fourth quarter shouldn't make the clock stop as usual.

Same here
 

Washington State has the same procedure in place!

I had a coach do this in basketball once. He got suspended by the state for two games.

Come on, you should know this. Sure a coach can forfeit a game...as an official, I have no power to stop him. A little more paperwork for me is all that will result. But the coach has people to answer to and unless there are outstanding circumstances, it's highly frowned upon to forfeit...which is usually met with suspension to the coach.

There's paperwork?
I had no idea. It's not like they're playing for money. What is it, like with lawyers, they're supposed to try to win no matter what the overall consider'n of good might be? So even though you, as an official, might think it'd be better for all if the game were aborted, the coaches aren't supposed to make that judgment? Unlike boxing?

I had the impression football was a game.

Yes, there's paperwork. Officials are sometimes accused of taking the game away from the players, but a coach forfeiting in the middle of a game is exactly that. It's an abdication of responsibility, and many state associations will hold coaches to account.

State associations tend to want to know when a coach forfeits a game...for whatever reason.

Like I said, a coach can make that judgement if he wants...he'll just have to deal with the consequences of his judgement. Most states have provisions punishing forfeits/quitting...and if they don't hand any punishments down, it doesn't stop the schools from hashing out their own punishments.

Football is a game, and by a coach deciding to call it quits for his team, he's taken that game away from his players and the opponent. In most people's eyes, there better be a pretty dang good reason for a coach to that, or he's in some trouble.

You cannot terminate the game in this situation. It's up to the coaches.

They both have to agree. Once they do, then the officials should agree as well.

But if they agree, does it bring down hell on both of them, as implied upthread? Or does that happen only if only one of them wants to end the game?

But don't the mercy rules being advocated by many in this thread do the same thing, for the same reason?

Happens in Baseball all the time, run rule. Baseball is the one sport where time is not part of the equation and a team could come back and win. So why do they have the run rule where as a football game has to be played.

I don't agree with kids not getting reps. Most of the kids that play in a blowout have a JV game of their own. Now if it is two big schools playing with plenty of non JV backups, play the entire time.