Running up the score

Running up the score is a term used in sports to describe the activity of scoring more points than are necessary to win the game. It is a technique that is mostly used in team sports, such as high school and college American football.

Some of the reasons why a team might run up the score:

• To demonstrate domination of one's opponents, and intimidate them and future opponents.
• To embarass an opponent or to make a point.
• To demonstrate the skill of individuals who need to impress sponsors, talent scouts, etc.
• To gain an advantage where play statistics are kept and used for professional advancement or as part of a countback/tiebreak system.
• Or just for the sake of scoring more points.

The concept of running up the score contrasts the accepted practice of running out the clock - that is, pulling out most of the game's first-string and (in football) either kneeling or running the ball up the middle.

Consequences of running up the score

The two most common consequences of running up the score are risking injury of a game's starting players and opposing teams remembering a shellacking and plotting revenge in a future meeting. Another criticism is that inexperienced members of a team - most commonly, third- and fourth-string members of a football team - get fewer opportunities to play and improve their skills for future games and/or seasons.

Running up the score is considered poor sportsmanship by nearly all fans, players, and coaches, albeit with differences in opinion on how big of an insult it is. For instance, former University of Florida head coach Steve Spurrier was notorious for running up the score. Although the practice of "running up the score" is less common overall at the high school and professional levels, some coaches each of these levels have been known to continue scoring long after a game's outcome has been determined.

Benefits of running up the score

The BCS and other polls

Certain coaches—for example, Oklahoma's Bob Stoops—are notorious for running up the score in order to impress coaches and sportswriters who vote in the Coaches Poll or AP Poll.

Many voters (coaches are particularly notorious for this) simply look at box scores before punching in their votes, which have a huge impact on who goes to BCS games, including the national championship. Only by watching the game or game tape (or by careful box-score scrutinization) can a coach determine if a 49-21 score was because of a fairly one-sided game, or because the winning team tried fake punts, Hail Mary passes and onside kicks late in the fourth quarter to make the score look more impressive.

The BCS computers originally included margin of victory as a component, but the BCS removed those elements after noticing large increases in teams running up the score.

Other arguments

Some fans of teams whose coaches frequently run up the score may also note that running up the score has its advantages. For instance, third- and fourth-string members of a football team need to do more than just kneel on the football or run the ball up the middle. When they are not allowed to make passing and running plays that the first- and second-stringers get to make, their skills deteriorate. However, many times coaches who run up the score simply do it with their first-string players.

Other fans, coaches, etc., believe that vastly superior teams should be allowed to make a point to grossly weaker opponents about their superiority (especially if an opponent of the better team's caliber is upcoming on the schedule). Some also believe that it is not the coach's or winning team's fault if a weak team is unable to stop a high-powered offensive juggernaut. Finally, some coaches advocate running up the score to make another point, such as showing disapproval of comments made by opposing players, coaches, etc., in the media.

Examples in college football

Houston

The only triple-digit score in modern history occurred on November 23, 1968, when the University of Houston defeated the University of Tulsa 100-6. Though they had a 24-0 advantage at half, Houston scored 11 touchdowns in the 2nd half for an astounding 94-point blowout.

Miami

On November 30, 1985, the University of Miami Hurricanes ran up the score on the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame in Gerry Faust's final game as Notre Dame head coach. The Hurricanes, led by Jimmy Johnson, were trying to impress pollsters since they were ranked fourth in the polls prior to the game. The Hurricanes called a fake punt on fourth down and eleven in the fourth quarter with a 44-7 lead and continued to pad the stats of quarterback Vinny Testaverde. Miami was rewarded in the AP poll as they passed idle Iowa to reach number three and set up a possible national championship with a victory over Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl. Receiving criticism after the game, Johnson replied, "Nobody apologized to me when Oklahoma did it," a reference to a 1980 rout by the score of 63-14 when Johnson was head coach at Oklahoma State University. Miami paid the price for its crimes when Tennessee drilled them, 35-7, in the 1986 Sugar Bowl.

Oklahoma

On November 8, 2003, the Oklahoma Sooners showed no mercy against Texas A&M, cruising to a 49-0 halftime lead. While Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops denied running up the score, his team came out in the 3rd quarter and put up 28 more points to finish with a final score of 77-0 and over 600 yards of total offense. This was the worst loss in Texas A&M football history.

Ohio State

In 1968, Ohio State University, enroute to a national championship, defeated their bitter rival, the University of Michigan by a score of 50-14. Late in the game, Ohio State held a commanding 42-14 advantage and scored one final touchdown before converting a two-point attempt. When asked why he tried for the additional points, Buckeyes head coach Woody Hayes said, "Because I couldn't go for three!" The spiteful comment came back to haunt Hayes as Michigan upset Ohio State the following year, 24-12, spoiling a bid for another national championship.

Notre Dame

Notre Dame routed Boston College 54-7 in a 1992 game where Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz called a fake punt play late in the game, with his team possessing an enormous lead. BC head coach Tom Coughlin spent the entire year looking forward to playing Notre Dame again, and ended up beating them 41-39, eventually costing Notre Dame a chance at a national championship.

Texas A&M

Texas A&M ran up the score in a 73-10 home romp against Baylor University in 2003, and entered the rematch a year later as huge favorites. However, A&M was caught looking ahead to the next week's showdown vs. the University of Oklahoma, and a revenge-minded Baylor team pulled off arguably the biggest upset of the year, 35-34 in overtime.

Texas Tech

In a 2004 game vs. Southern Methodist University, the Texas Tech Red Raiders had the ball with less than a minute to play and a two-touchdown lead. Instead of safely ending the game, Tech threw the ball six times in an attempt to increase its score. After the game, punches were thrown between the two teams. As SMU head coach Phil Bennett said later, "Neither team deserved to have that happen." [1]

Washington and Oregon

The largest margin of victory turnaround in Division I-A football in successive years belongs to the University of Washington and the University of Oregon, and showcased two prime examples of running up the score. In 1973, Oregon ran up the score at home, burying Washington 58-0. A year later, Washington responded with a 66-0 drubbing of Oregon back home in Seattle. In that game, Washington's starting quarterback Chris Rowland played longer than necessary and suffered a season-ending knee injury. Rowland recalled that Washington head coach Jim Owens "wanted me in and said, 'We're going to beat these guys more than they beat us.' He (Owens) apologized to me because it was a personal thing for him." In an interesting twist of irony, both Oregon and Washington would replace their football coaches following the 1974 season and hired the men who would become the most successful coaches at their respective schools--Rich Brooks at Oregon and Don James at Washington.

Florida

During his 12-year tenure (1990-2001) as the "Ol' Ball Coach" at Florida, coach Steve Spurrier, the 1966 Heisman Trophy winner as the Gators' quarterback, was often accused of running up the score against weaker competition, including victories of 73-7 and 65-0 over Southeastern Conference rival Kentucky in 1994 and 1996, respectively. Spurrier would often dispute that he running up the score, as his backups tended to do the scoring and Florida often ran the ball in the second half. But the tables were turned on Spurrier in the Fiesta Bowl following the 1995 season, when the Gators were routed by Nebraska, 62-24, in a game matching up the two remaining undefeated teams in Division I-A football, clinching the Cornhuskers' second consecutive national championship.

In 1971, the Gators were involved in another controversy against archrival Miami. As time wound down, Gator coach Doug Dickey wanted to give quarterback John Reaves a chance to set the SEC record for most touchdown passes in a career, which had been set earlier that season by Auburn's Pat Sullivan, the 1971 Heisman winner. With Reaves and Sullivan tied at 53 career TD passes, Dickey ordered his defense to lay down and allow the Hurricanes to score, which would give Reaves his chance at standing alone in the record books. Reaves came through with a touchdown pass to Carlos Alvarez to break the record, and after the 45-16 victory, the Gators celebrated by jumping into the pool at the east end of the Orange Bowl. Following the game, Miami coach Fran Curci, already known for having one of the most volatile tempers in college football, went after Dickey and the two nearly came to blows. The incident became known as the "Florida Flop" and remains a source of irritation to this day for Hurricane fans, even though Florida and Miami discontinued their annual series in 1987 and have played only four times since then.

Running up the score in other sports

Baseball

In baseball, one might hear an occasional complaint about a team trying such things as sacrifice bunting or "swinging for the bleachers" (as in to hit a home run) when they're up ten or more runs, but this is very rare for a number of reasons.

First, teams rarely gain a lead considered to be "safe" — because there is no clock, a team can theoretically come back from any deficit. And, unlike in football where a team can run out the clock, there's no equivalent way to speed up the game's end in baseball — unless players of the winning team are told to, say, intentionally strike out or overrun the bases. To intentionally try to get outs for the purpose of speeding up a game may actually be considered a greater sin than trying to score more runs, as it would break the integrity of the game.

Amateur baseball games often have a mercy rule, so that games can end sooner when the lead is objectively determined to be insurmountable.

Basketball

In basketball, some coaches of vastly superior teams team will keep in his/her starters in the latter stages of a grossly one-sided game (e.g., less than ten minutes left in the second half of a college game; or well into the fourth quarter of a high school or NBA game). Players may be told to continue to aggressively apply full-court pressure (in order to steal the ball), block shots, break away for slam dunks, or try three-point baskets and other fan-pleasing shots.

Sometimes, a losing team may prolong the game by fouling the opponent on every possession, in an effort to extend its chances of a comeback. Thus, critics of this strategy may counter a charge of running up the score by noting they could stop fouling at any time (effectively, conceding defeat). The soon-to-be winners then almost invariably dribble in place until the clock expires, and at levels where a shot clock is used, only take shots when the clock is nearing zero. The other option is to just "play it out" as if it were a scrimmage, by trying to take the best shot possible and also attempt some sort of defense (without any taboos against fan-pleasing shots and plays). The second option is usually referred to as "garbage time".

Ice hockey

In ice hockey, complaints are quite rare, for the simple reason that unless there is a gross disparity in skill, teams generally do not score large numbers of goals at will against the opposition. A mercy rule also may come into affect at pre-high school levels, where such disparities might come into play as a matter of course.

However, the rules of competition can sometimes work the opposite direction. In women's hockey at the 2006 Winter Olympics, total goals was one of the factors determining home ice, and so the two favored teams, the United States and Canada, were encouraged to post the highest scores possible. When the Canadians posted a combined 26-0 score in their first two games against the much weaker Italy and Russia, they were criticized in their home country and abroad. However, by the rules, they couldn't let up in case the Americans blew out one of their opponents [2].

Soccer

In amateur soccer, running up the score is usually limited by the presence of a mercy rule. In professional soccer, the concept of "running up the score" is basically unheard of; most pro soccer competitions use goal difference or goal average as a tiebreaker, meaning it is preferable to win by as wide a margin of victory as possible. Furthermore, it is doubtful that a team on the receiving end of a ten-goal defeat would ever accuse their opponents of unsporting behavior or a lack of respect; indeed, in European soccer, a strong team choosing to field star players against lesser opposition is generally seen as a mark of respect, rather than of disrespect. In fact, if a European team, leading by several goals late in the game, made an American football-style attempt to show good sportsmanship by easing off, bringing on several lesser-known substitutes and retaining possession in order to kill the clock, this would be seen as deeply unsporting and would probably provoke a hostile reaction quite opposite to the intended effect. Also, teams are limited to three substitutions per match in most competitions, preventing coaches from making mass substitutions seen in American football or basketball.

High schools

Vast talent discrepancies between opponents happen more often in high school sports than in college or professional sports. This is especially prevalent in some state-sponsored district and regional single-elimination tournaments in which all schools (regardless of record) participate. Often, a state's athletic association will seed a vastly superior team (one that has gone undefeated or has very few losses) against a very weak team in the first round, and the talent disparity between the two teams quickly becomes obvious.

One notorious example of many such incidents that happen each year throughout the United States was the state-ranked Walkerville, Michigan High School's (enrollment 98) 115-2 victory against Hart, Michigan Lakeshore Academy (enrollment 49) in a Class D (smallest one-fourth of Michigan high schools) district opener during the 2004 Michigan High School Girl's Basketball state tournament.

In light of similar incidents, coaches are often accused of running up the score and taking the opportunity to humiliate and embarrass a weak opponent. While this is occasionally true, more often than not the winning school's reserves (second-string and junior varsity players) played a good share of the contest, but simply were able to score at will against the opponent. However, when the star players are left in to set scoring records, as happened with Epiphanny Prince's 113-point basketball game in 2006, criticism usually follows.

For the 2006 football season, the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference has decided that any victory of 50 points or more will be considered unsportsmanlike and the coach in question will be suspended for the team's next game. This was in reaction to one coach, Jack Cochran of New London, whose teams won that way four times during 2005. One victory provoked a brawl and led to disorderly conduct charges against the opposing coach.

Coach Cochran defended himself by saying that in one 90-0 blowout, he had tried to get both teams and the timekeeper to run the clock continuously, as is done in Iowa when one team has a 35-point lead. The CIAC considered a similar proposal but rejected as several members felt it would cut into backups' playing time.[3]

Pro football

Running up the score is rarely used by teams in the National Football League (NFL) and other professional football leagues. A primary reason is that starting players and coaches are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, which is affected by how the players and the team performs during the season. Any attempt to run up the score increases the risks of losing a key player to an injury that could affect the team's chances for the rest of the season. Thus, if a team decides to keep their stars in during a blowout, it is usually viewed by the opponent as an insult. Another factor is that the parity that the salary cap has brought to the NFL in the 1990s has evened out competition somewhat, with less talent disparity between the best and worst teams compared to the past. It is much more difficult to run up the score to embarrassing (50+ point) margins in the modern game at the pro level. The last true embarrassment at the professional level happened in the 1940 NFL Championship, won by the Chicago Bears over the Washington Redskins 73-0, an especially shocking turnaround given that the Redskins prevailed 7-3 in a regular season meeting.

The one exception to this general rule is in regards to the NFL's tiebreaking rules that are used to determine which teams qualify for the playoffs if they are tied in the standings. One criterion to break ties is comparing the total number of points scored by each team during the regular season. Under this scenario, running up the score in a late season game is not considered poor sportmanship due to there being an actual benefit to having the score higher. This scenario occurred during the 1999 season when the Green Bay Packers could possibly have made the playoffs if the Dallas Cowboys had lost and they had scored enough points against the Arizona Cardinals in their final regular season game to surpass the Carolina Panthers in total points scored. They ended up beating the Cardinals 49-24 (not a huge margin of victory by football standards), but Dallas went on to beat the Giants later that day to earn the final playoff spot and knock the Packers out of the playoff picture anyway.

Accusations of running up the score outside of playoff races are unusual in the NFL, but not unheard of. One of the most notorious occurred on November 17, 1985, when the New York Jets defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 62-28 in a regular season game. The two teams had last met in the final game of the previous season, when Tampa Bay had somewhat controversially appeared to stop playing defense and allowing the Jets to score late in a 41-21 victory in an apparent effort to get the ball back so that running back James Wilder could attempt to break the NFL record for most rushing touchdowns in a season. Commentators wondered if the Jets' huge margin of victory was a way of retaliating against the Bucs for such poor sportsmanship, but the Jets and their coaches denied that there had been any conscious effort to run the score up. The Jets' denials may be valid since Bucs coach John McKay, who allowed the Jets to score late in the 1984 contest, retired after the '84 season and had been replaced by Leeman Bennett, and also the Jets were 11-5 in 1985 and reached the playoffs, while Tampa Bay was in the midst of back-to-back 2-14 seasons in 1985 and '86.

More recently, a Monday Night Football game between the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys ended in a 21-6 Cowboy victory and some complaints by Green Bay players that the home team's final field goal was an insult to them, as Dallas had the ball deep in Green Bay territory with the game well in hand as it ended, yet chose to score more points anyway. However, it should be noted that Cowboys coach Barry Switzer wanted to give kicker Chris Boniol a chance to tie the NFL record for most field goals in a game with seven.

External links and references

• Texas Tech at Southern Methodist - The game between Texas Tech and Southern Methodist that sparked a fistfight.
• 113 points is absurd - an ESPN.com column about Epiphanny Prince, who scored 113 points in a high school game.