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Subject: Proposed New Rule For Ending Basketball Games Author: An Observer [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 17:02:39 02/11/25 Tue Fox Sports talking head Nick Wright made an aggressive case for a new rule that could affect Ivy League games. His proposal is that, if at any point in an NBA game, one team leads the other by 25, the game is over. It's an interesting way to deal with blow-outs in any sport. But it's not just about letting off the hook the laggard team to save them the pain of playing out the string. Imagine the impact on the game. Once one team started to build a lead, it would press even harder on the accelerator, trying to close out the win before the buzzer sounded. Meanwhile, the team behind would play harder than ever, trying to avoid the ignominy of being "mercy ruled." The uncompetitive games would be MORE EXCITING. Ivy League basketball games feature 15- and 19-point leads all the time. Can you imagine the excitement in the building every time this happens? We apply the mercy rule in Ivy League softball and it gets triggered all the time. Why not basketball? [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[> Subject: Re: Proposed New Rule For Ending Basketball Games Author: Ivy Patriot [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 17:55:01 02/11/25 Tue Softball plays doubleheaders. Basketball does not. :-) Don't pitch that idea to the 1999 Princeton men's team, although Penn might go for it. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Proposed New Rule For Ending Basketball Games Author: bulldog10jw [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 18:21:59 02/11/25 Tue In the 2016 NCAA tournament second round, Yale cut a 27 point Duke first half lead down to 3 in the last minute before losing. Maybe if that had been a 27 point lead with 10 minutes left in the game, a mercy rule would have been warranted. But not a first half lead. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: Proposed New Rule For Ending Basketball Games Author: An Observer [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 20:34:36 02/11/25 Tue Two years ago, Yale came back from down 21 against Princeton. The Tigers then came back from down 19 against Penn. Just a couple weeks ago, Princeton came back from down 20 against Columbia. Can you imagine the noise inside John J. Lee or Jadwin as we approached the 25-point trigger? That's what I call excitement. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Proposed New Rule For Ending Basketball Games Author: joiseyfan [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 21:06:44 02/11/25 Tue Check the prior entries. I’d be far more comfy with 30 than 25, and NEVER before halftime. BTW, the stage of development of the women’s game is still such that I think they should play each game out — AND coaches should be motivated to play their benches liberally. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: No Mercy Author: An Observer [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 15:12:20 02/20/25 Thu First of all, I am confident that Nick Wright, the sponsor of this idea, is smiling when he proposes this mechanism to end games. With that in mind, let's play out his idea. The point here is not to truncate a game to spare the trailing team the discomfort of playing out the string, or giving both teams the opportunity to start the second game of a doubleheader. (Note that, in softball, the mercy rule applies to the last game of a doubleheader or a series. It's not for mercy per se; it's to end games.) Ivy League games reach 17-point deficits all the time. If Yale or Princeton are involved, a 19-point deficit is practically de rigeur, the Tigers occasionally being on both sides of that trade. The 25-point rule, at least applied in the Ivies, is not to show mercy to the loser. It's to add excitement for spectators and, by extension, players and coaches. Hey, that was the argument for the ILT: Keep more teams engaged when the results on the court might suggest otherwise. Well, let's take it to its logical extension. The next time an Ivy team builds up a 19-point lead, no fan is getting up to buy popcorn or use the rest room. That's when the excitement BEGINS. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]