No longer will one-sided high school football games run the risk of lasting late into the evening.
In April, the Indiana High School Athletic Association approved a mercy rule designed to speed up games once a certain point differential is reached. The IHSAA and Indiana Football Coaches Association worked together on the rule, which goes into effect this season.
The mercy rule states that when the point difference reaches 35 points in the second half, there will be a running game clock with the exception of timeouts, scores or an injured player. The clock won’t revert to conventional timing, even if the point differential goes back below 35.
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Use of the 40-second play clock won’t change. It will be used throughout the game regardless of the game score at the time.
“The whole idea was to try to address the lopsided scores that we were seeing in football. When you have games that are 60-, 70- and even 80-point differentials, nothing good is occurring there,” IHSAA commissioner Bobby Cox said. “It’s not good for the winning team. It’s certainly not good for the losing team.
“The one thing that concerns me the most if you’ve got a team that’s getting beat by 60, 70 or 80 points, there’s obviously a mismatch there. Subsequently, there could be a health and safety consideration, and that game needs to be over with.”
Last season, the six Johnson County football teams teamed to win 26 percent of their games by 35 or more points.
The figure basically matches what Center Grove has accomplished since Eric Moore became coach in 1999. The Trojans have won 51 of their 188 games (27 percent) by 35 points or more, including 38 of 107 (36 percent) from 2007 to 2016.
In the past, games in which outcomes were decided early allowed Moore to use players, particularly seniors, who otherwise might not get on the field. He said a running clock is sure to take away some of those repetitions.
Center Grove’s preseason roster this season includes 32 seniors.
“That would be the biggest problem, not playing our seniors,” Moore said. “I don’t like when you change the policy of the game. There’s no mercy rule if a basketball team gets up by 25 points over another team.
“You’re messing with the essence of the game. It’s just not healthy for the sport, I think.”
The mercy rule is to be used, if necessary, for postseason games leading up to the six state championship contests at Lucas Oil Stadium. The finals in Classes A through 6A will be played without a running clock.
“The idea is if you get to the state championship, you should play a full contest,” Cox said. “And while we’ve had some blowouts in state championship games, they’re rare.”
Since 2011, just eight of the 51 state championship games have been decided by 35 or more.
In 2018, the average final score in tournament games in Indiana was 37.7 to 12.8, a difference of almost 25 points. The state’s all-time high is a 25.7-point differential during the 2014 tournament.
Brett Cooper spent four seasons as an assistant coach in Ohio before becoming Indian Creek’s head coach in 2017. In 2014, Ohio implemented a mercy rule calling for a running clock when the point spread is 30 or more in the second half.
However, unlike Indiana, Ohio football teams switch back to regular timing when the margin drops below 30.
“There are positives to a mercy rule, obviously, but one of the negatives is you lose a chance for some younger kids to play under the lights,” Cooper said. “With a running clock, (the second half) goes by in the blink of an eye.”
Cooper wouldn’t mind seeing Indiana do what Ohio does and use conventional timing should the point differential be under 35 at any point in the second half. Cox’s stance is that a team trailing by five touchdowns likely isn’t mounting a comeback, particularly with the clock running.
Cox said another aspect of the mercy rule is attempting to ensure good sportsmanship.
“Nothing good happens in a game like this,” he said. “I’ve walked out of a stadium where there is one gate, so you’ve got fans from both sides of the field walking through it at the end of a game when it was 75-0. And then the parents start jawing at each other. That’s just not a good environment for high school sports.”
Also affecting Indiana high school football moving forward is bylaw 54-3.1, which now allows a player to participate in six quarters per week (Friday through Thursday) with no more than two varsity quarters included. This allows a player to play as much as half a varsity contest and still be able to play all four quarters of a sub-varsity game (JV or freshman).
Whiteland coach Darrin Fisher, the IFCA president during the 2014-15 school year and part of its executive board since 2013, feels both moves are steps in the right direction.
“Nobody gets better in a blowout. The winning team doesn’t get better. The losing team doesn’t get better,” Fisher said. “This way you get the best of both rules. You get the mercy rule and it doesn’t cost a young man a JV quarter.”
