No Mercy in CT Leads to Possible Suspension

[knapplc]

Weird title, I know, but I wanted to bring this up for discussion:

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-based conference.

"We were concerned with any coach running up the game. There's no need for it," Mosa said Wednesday. "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's 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

.

This is without question the most ridiculous rule I've ever heard of associated with football. What a bunch of pansy whiners. Why not redo your Divisions if you have a few teams that are so much better than the others.

There's just no way this is a good rule in practice. I've heard several shows talking about this, from Sportscenter to Dan and Keith O to Rome, all the way down to local sports radio. All the scenarios they've come up with for the winning team to do are pretty funny and would actually make the losing team feel wose, like taking a knee the entire second half, allowing the other team to score by not trying to tackle them on kickoffs, etc.

What kind of PC BS is this, anyway? Isn't football supposed to be a manly sport? Since when did they start wearing skirts out there?

[moonhead]

manlaws.com

skunk rules are for baseball. bush league.

Edited - SNS

[Sixxgunn]

I know a better way. Suspend the coaches that lose by 50 points or more. Might motivate them not to suck.

[Dan Lambskin]

pretty stupid. i agree, i'm suprised they have that kind of disparity between 2 teams anyway and should look at some kind of realignment

[dream_017]

I hate rules like this.

Maybe they should not keep score or re-set it back to 0 at the end so nobody feels like they lost then they can all go the ice cream shop and get an ice cream cone

Or maybe they should count TDs as 1 point then they wouldn't feel so bad losing 11 to 3 as opposed to 77 to 21

Or for every TD you are up, you play with 1 less player

Or you sack up and play the game like a man. People got roasted for argueing against this for little leagues, but now here it is in HS sports. Where does it stop? Should they have called the Tiger game yesterday when they were down 6-0 in the 1st inning...no, they came back to win; what about the Bills-Oilers game from 1993?.....Should the Colts have given up against TB in 2003 when they were down by 21 with less than 4 minutes left? This is what makes sports great. There is that chance you can come back, even if you lose you remember that loss and try to use that for the next time you play them.

I remember playing soccer in HS and getting beat by a team year in and year out 7-1, 6-0 etc. You know what, we finally did beat that team and it was the greatest game I have been a part of.

[Omaha Red Sox]

I know a better way. Suspend the coaches that lose by 50 points or more. Might motivate them not to suck.

Why don't we just not have winning and losing anymore either, just to be fair?

[mysticphysh]

Maybe if a team loses by 50 points or more they should make that team wear what Dan Lambskin has in his SIG and they'll thikn about not losing by that much again.

[skibrett15]

wow, this has been all over the radio in CT. I can't believe it's at the cafe too. I just can't escape this story. Yes it's not a good rule, but how many times is this seriously going to come into effect?

[knapplc]

wow, this has been all over the radio in CT. I can't believe it's at the cafe too. I just can't escape this story. Yes it's not a good rule, but how many times is this seriously going to come into effect?

One coach had four 50+ point wins last season alone. I'm guessing a lot.

[boojumsnark25]

pathetic.