I'm all for sportsmanship but...

[Castor27]

... this is a little ridiculous.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/news/story?id=2457707&name=FPT-2457707-052513&srvc=sz

HARTFORD, Conn. -- High school football coaches in Connecticut will have to be good sports this fall -- or risk a suspension.

The football committee of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, which governs high school sports, is adopting a "score management" policy that will suspend coaches whose teams win by more than 50 points.

A rout is considered an unsportsmanlike infraction and the coach of the offending team will be disqualified from coaching the next game, said Tony Mosa, assistant executive director of the Cheshire, Conn.-based conference.

"We were concerned with any coach running up the game. There's no need for it," Mosa said. "This is something that we really have been discussing for the last couple of years. There were a number of games that were played where the difference of scores were 60 points or more. It's not focused on any one particular person."

Some have dubbed it the "Jack Cochran rule," after the New London High football coach, who logged four wins of more than 50 points last year. In New London's 60-0 rout of Tourtelotte/Ellis Tech, Cochran enraged the Tourtelotte bench by calling a timeout just before halftime. Tourtelotte's coach was arrested on breach of peace charges after police say he struck a security guard and an assistant New London coach.

Leo Facchini, New London's athletic director, called it unfair to single out his coach.

Facchini said he and Cochran tried to pull in the reins during New London's 90-0 drubbing of Griswold last season by trying to get both sides and the timekeeper to agree to run a continuous clock.

Some states, including Iowa, continuously run the game clock in the second half if a team has a 35-point lead. The Connecticut committee rejected a similar proposal because members thought it would unfairly cut into backups' playing time.

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The problems I see with it are this:

1) You open it up for a team who is getting beat pretty bad to "throw" the game bad enough to get beat by 50+ just so the other coach gets a suspension.

2) I have coached games where we have been beaten by more than 50 and where we have won by more than 50. in both cases the winning teams had their 3rd-4th string players in the game and the loser still couldn't stop them. In the game we won, we had a 3rd string senior D-Lineman, who had played all of 5 varsity downs in his entire career. He intercepted a pass on the opponents 4 yardline and stumbled into the endzone to put us up by 54. What should the coaches have done? Told him not to score because it would have been more than 50?

The only alternative is to either let the other team score on you (something coached hate to do) or start kneeling the ball when you get close to 50. As a coach I'd be more embarassed by these than by losing by 100. In the words of Steve Spurrier "If you don't want us to run up the score, then stop us"

[bigred75]

Thats a yankee for ya..........................

[KFDM COOP]

AMEN!

[RETIREDFAN1]

Typical Northeastern :bss

[Jsmity]

What about those kids who show up to every practice and give it their all day in and day out and finally get that chance to play in the 4th quarter when there team is up big????? This really chaps my @$$!!!!!! :evil:

[WOS92]

If you don't want to get blown out, don't suck.

[WOSgrad]

Hold on guys, I have some breaking news. I have gotten a hold of the newest rule that will be introduced regarding Connecticut High School Football. It reads as follows:

"Before once a ball carrier reaches the five yard line, he must turn to the nearest defender and ask 'Mother, may I?' before entering the end zone."

[CoachLB]

The 3rd and 4th team players practice all week and deserve to run the same offense and defense as the starters ! If the other team has their reserves in and we cannot stop them, then shame on us , we need to do a better job . I care about the other teams players I really do, but I love my players, and if a young man that doesn't get a chance to score a TD, gets a chance to do something he will remember the rest of his life, I'm going to let him have that memory. If a person knows the game, you can tell if a coach is running up the score or just allowing his reserves to play the game with the same playbook as his starters. Again, the kids practiced all week they deserve their shot to really play, not just to run out the clock.

[KFDM COOP]

No kidding! What do you tell them lay down on the field???

[bigred75]

This whole article is just plain ridiculous.................some liberal not wanting their kids feelings hurt.......................Oh shoot did I say that outloud............ ;omg ...................sorry.

[Jsmity]

:iag

[Guest GoStangs]

Seems to me, if they're concerned that running up the score is that big of a deal, the refs should just call the game when a team gets up by 50 points. I don't really understand the point of holding the coaches accountable.

Another alternative to the rule is punishing the team who gets beat by 50 or more points. It seems they're as much to blame for the score getting out of hand as the team who steamrolled them...

[WOS95]

:iag

[KFDM COOP]

Just a stupid rule, plain and simple..

[griff]

You cannot accomplish an "equal opportunity to win" by dictating "equal results". What a bunch of yankee crybabies. Football is about COMPETITION. Let the kids play and accept the consequences of the outcome! If they lose by 50, so be it. Many of life's lessons are learned in struggle and defeat. By adopting this stupid rule, they are teaching student athletes the wrong message.

This Connecticut crap is one more reason why I would never live in the northeast.

[bigred75]

:iag amen to that

[adminbaberuth]

In baseball you never have to worry about this running up the score. We have a 10 run rule, but it's unwritten prior to the 5th, of what is expected from a coach.

And if he doesn't follow it, then watch out.

[Guest bleed orange]

I agree totally with all your comments, But we have done the same here but not in football. In 24AAA at the junior high level they award kids 1-8 in each heat a ribbon. It's maybe 1-6 I'm not sure. They also dont keep points until the district meet. Now at the district meet they do award the top 6 like any other track meet. We reward kids for mediocrity. If kids don't know failure then how will they know how to compete when they enter the real world. No matter what they do to keep kids involved the same 10-20 seniors will be there through it all. When my son was in the 7th grade they had 56 boy's in football only six were there in the end.

We beat kountze 99-0, alot of people said we ran up the score. But again how can you tell kids who don't play very much not to try? Beating kountze that bad was not one of my highlights in high school. They returned the favor in basketball believe me. We as a country are making it way to easy for our kids.