Better know an AIA rule: Today, the 'running clock'
Rules are made to be broken.
Of course, you have to understand the rule before you break it.
In the past four weeks, I've covered three games that have been blowouts and needed use of the "running clock."
Here is where normally I would explain that rule. But in each three cases, the running clock has been implemented differently. One school doesn't start it until a 50-point margin. Two others did it at 42, but one of those let it run continually, as its name would suggest. The other, for a supposed running clock, stopped it quite frequently.
At one game, the opposing coaches - the ones winning by a 42-point margin - were actually arguing with the time keeper for more time. I guess they felt they couldn't maintain the six-touchdown lead they amassed in the first half.
(Note: I'm not naming names here because I don't want anyone getting in trouble. That's not the point of this column. As much as I'd love to call out those coaches for being ultra-aggressive jerks who represented their school poorly, if I did that it would also indicate who they were playing. And call me a homer - or ridiculously paranoid - but I don't want any school getting in trouble. So no names.)
With some help from AIA Associate Executive Director Glen Treadaway, who is in charge of, among other things, AIA bylaw interpretation, I found the "running clock" rule. His help was basically pointing me to the right place on the AIA Web site, which if you've ever been on that site you now how big of a help it actually is.
So, consider this week's column a public service. Here is, in its entirety, rule 23.1.5 - the FOOTBALL SPEED UP RULE (capitalization, phrasing and grammar theirs, this parenthetical comment mine.)
Special timing rules will apply anytime a team is ahead of an opponent by 42 or more points. The referee will start the clock on the ready for play signal if the clock was stopped because
• The ball goes out of bounds
• There was a change of possession
• A legal or illegal pass is incomplete
• A delay of game penalty
• Following a legal kick play
Regular timing rules shall apply in the last two minutes of the game or when the score returns to less than 42 points.
There it is in all its glory. Apparently, the term "running clock" is somewhat inaccurate. All the speed up rule does is run the clock at the ref's signal of ready instead of at the snap. At most of the games I've seen this rule enacted, it has been a non-stop clock that allows for maybe seven to 10 plays a quarter.
While I like the idea of a blowout ending in 12 minutes, that's just the selfish reporter in me talking. That's not football. This rule, in my mind, is incredibly fair. It basically makes every team run the hurry up - even if they are passing every down.
Teams aren't forced out of a rhythm because of a strange, endless ticking countdown. Backups and third stringers - undoubtedly playing in such a lopsided contest - get to run a normal offense.
I just hope in the future it's the area teams on the happy end of these whoopings. They've been on the sad end far too much this year.
