Every week holds new hope for fans of college football, and while we love the story of an underdog rising up to knock off a Goliath, that hope can be lost just as quickly.
As the concentration of talent in football continues to flow to the top, contests between the haves and have-nots can get out of control quickly.
Blowout wins happen every week as lower-level teams continue to accept money games in order to fund athletic departments that don’t garner millions of dollars from television deals. As these smaller programs can struggle to keep up the fight, a quick perusal of the rules of college football is needed to determine what to do if things get too out of hand.
Does College Football Use a Mercy Rule for 1-Sided Games?
The first few weeks of the season always feature lopsided matchups, and while sometimes the score can be demoralizing, as was the case when South Alabama beat FCS Northwestern State 87-10, there are times when the game can become dangerous.
Lower-tier programs have fewer scholarship athletes, and injuries can take a massive toll on depth.
Frustrations can also boil over, leading to injuries to key players or skirmishes that can cause players to be suspended for upcoming games despite the game being out of reach.
As such, the question arises in regards to a mercy rule, or a rule that ends a competition between two opponents earlier than the scheduled ending of the contest based on one team having a presumably insurmountable lead over the other.
While it does make sense to have a mercy rule in place to save teams from further humiliation — and many high school and youth sports leagues have a mercy rule — college football does not have any sort of official mercy rule in place in the event of such contests.
While teams may still agree to end a contest early on their own terms unofficially, and there are mercy rules in place in other collegiate sports like softball and baseball, nothing exists that forces teams into a running clock or a shortened period because of a specific score.
The last time an unofficial mercy agreement was made at the college football level was in 2022, when the Syracuse Orange were taking on the Wagner Seahawks and levied a 49-0 advantage by halftime. Officials announced that both coaches had agreed to shortened 10-minute quarters and Syracuse ended up winning the game by a score of 59-0.
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