In some sports, forfeits are common place and not much is thought of them. In other sports, forfeits denote serious malpractice by the forfeiting team and almost never happen. Football is a forfeits almost never happen sport.

If you hear that a football team forfeited a game, your first thought is probably what in the world did they do that was that bad.

Exactly...and there's another one I've been unfortunate to have dealt with more than once this year.

Its actually happened (running clock, mostly) quite a bit over the years, at all levels, including 5A. Now TAPPS has their 40 point clock running rule for the second half. We had it in a game earlier this year and also ran the clock in 2 other V games.

In South Dakota we have a running clock if the lead goes over 35 points in the second half (cannot go back to a standard clock) and game over if the lead reaches 50 in the second half. Works well here. They don't use this in our top division, though.

I never had that thought. If nobody told me the details but I just saw it in a box score, I'd think they made a scheduling mistake that couldn't be better rectified in time, or they didn't have enough players. If I saw in a box score that they had a forfeit in the middle of the season and games before and after it, that would say something different from either starting or ending the season with a run of forfeits. But I could also imagine they were getting beat up in a game and threw in the towel, as in boxing.

What's odd to me is that I'm learning here that although in boxing, both the referee and the coaches are expected to stop the fight according to their judgment, in football you're looking for some uniform rule to stop the fight (the original poster wanted immediate endings, others wanting timing rule changes) early, and although the teams are allowed to do so, it's considered outre for the captain to forfeit under the same sort of conditions and for the same reasons that you want the rules to cause the game to end. So you want to make them do it, but acknowledge that it's bad for them to decide to do it. And it's under circumstances that would be extremely unlikely to make a difference to gamblers. It just seems like a very odd situation to me.

If a game ends due to a mercy rule, it ends because of a stipulation that existed before the game started. If a team forfeits, it is declaring the game over despite the wishes of the opposing team. That's a significant difference.

Take soccer for instance. If you pull your team from the field in soccer (the only way to forfeit a match in progress), you force the referee to abandon the game. Whoever forces a soccer match to be abandoned is hit with significant penalties. It's consider very unsporting.

Not my game, but a crew in my chapter were informed by both coaches that they agreed to shorten the periods to 8 mins. to begin the third period. The sad thing is, the losing coach actually requested to have a running clock before the game even began.

[QUOTE=voiceoflg;858865]In Georgia the mercy rule is as follows:

At the end of the first half of play, if a team is trailing by 30 points or more, the coach of the trailing team may choose to play the second half with a running clock. Quarters would remain at 12 minutes.

If the coach does not exercise the option of the running clock, the third quarter will be played with regulation timing.

If the point differential reaches, or remains, 30 or more points during the third quarter, the clock will still run according to rule for the remainder of the third quarter, but the fourth quarter will have a running clock mandated.

A running clock means the clock will be stopped only: (a) after a score and until the ball is kicked off. (b) during deliberations for penalty administration. (c) during charged timeouts or official's timeouts.

This is a good rule. I like that it gives the option to the losing coach. As stated in Ohio, there is no running clock, only shortening quarters. This almost never occurs because the coaches egos won't allow it. A running clock, on the other hand, is less offensive to them because they can fluff the blame onto us. I'm okay with that. As it stands now, nothing happens and we deal with these blowouts and all that goes with them.

The local HS here in NW Ohio had a running clock for the entire second half Friday. 40 point half-time lead.

And people scoff at the Gold Book. As goofy as some of its provisions might be, I applaud the effort to improve consistency across the state.

I had that happen one time. We didn't do it... but we quickly saw why he wanted to do it, and ran the last part of Q2 and all of the 2nd half.

Sounds like we have some wayward rebels on our hands. WHat's next, pink whistles?

Maybe a noble goal. However, the heavy handed way it was implemented was, in my opinion, unprofessional.

The folks in my association who complained about Maurer being "heavy handed" are the same ones who haven't peeked at a book in 30 years. Their egos mostly have prevented them from adopting any standardized mechanics. Nobody's going to tell them how to officiate!

I don't know you, parepat, and would not presume to paint you with the same brush. Still, it hardly seems "heavy handed" to me: what's the penalty for ignoring the state? Losing playoff games? When 90% of officials don't get playoff games anyway?

1. I doubt that those officials who haven't looked at a rule book in 30 years are wasting their time on sites like these.

2. Threatening to suspend officials for up to two years for failing to follow brand new mechanics which were not even rolled out until August of the first year was, in my opinion, heavy handed.