Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2010 February 28

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February 28[edit]

Football scores[edit]

I do not know much about football or its scoring, so I am asking my question here. I was looking at some high school football game scores. In some games, the final score was listed as a tie score between both teams. And, in other games, the final score was listed as one team winning in overtime. All of these games were games between the same exact high schools (their annual Thanksgiving Day rivalry), so I am not comparing different schools in different leagues (or whatever the divisions are called). For example, the score might state: In 2005, High School X tied High School Y with a score of 14-14. And in 2006, High School X beat High School Y by a score of 21-14 in overtime (or something similar to that example, with the exact score numbers not being important). So, my question is ... why do they "allow" ties to stand in some games? Yet in other games, they do not allow a tie to stand and they need to break the tie with overtime play? Again, these are all the same exact type of game (regular season play) ... and not any "special" type of game such as end-of-the-year state championships or semi-finals or finals or what have you. So, any insights into this? I am asking about such football scores in general, whether it be high school, college, or professional NFL game scores. Thanks in advance. (64.252.68.102 (talk) 16:01, 28 February 2010 (UTC))[reply]

Overtime for tied regular-season games is a fairly recent innovation. The NFL, for example, used to have quite a few tied games before the overtime rules were put in. Since then there have been many fewer ties. At the amateur level, I think they keep playing "shootouts" until someone wins, at least at the college level. Not sure about high school, but there's not much point in playing overtime if it can still end in a tie (outside the NFL). And if a game is a championship game, obviously there are no ties. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:12, 28 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. These are the games that I am talking about: Notre Dame High School (West Haven)#Green Bowl. I notice that there was OT in 1980 ... (and there may be other OT scores that simply are not listed as such). However, there were several tie scores after 1980 ... some in the 1990's and such. So, at least in this instance, it seems that there are tie scores allowed even after there is an OT system in place ... no? This is confusing. Any insights? Thanks! (64.252.68.102 (talk) 16:24, 28 February 2010 (UTC))[reply]
I don't follow high school football. It's possible there were various rule changes. Maybe they played an overtime period like the NFL rather than having a shootout. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:48, 28 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Is a shootout even possible in football? It doesn't seem to make sense. I think the posters mentioning that possibility may have bene thinking of soccer. The mention of the NFL in the original question makes it clear what meaning of "football" was intended. --Anonymous, 21:00 UTC, March 1, 2010.
Yes, it could very well be a change of regulations within that league / division. But, the change certainly seems to be going in the "wrong" direction. I would think that progressive changes would be implemented to avoid ties, not to maintain them. But, I concede that I know little about football and its scoring practices. Any other thoughts? Anyone? Thanks. (64.252.68.102 (talk) 18:15, 28 February 2010 (UTC))[reply]
I'm not familiar with the rules of Conn. high school football but it could be they have or had a system similar to that of the NFL, in which a game is declared a tie if no one scores after a certain amount of overtime is played. That would allow an overtime victory one year and a tie the next. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 23:43, 28 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
This is what I was about to suggest. I seem to remember from my high school days a rule of this sort. There was just one overtime and if it was still a tie, then it was a tie for good. I think it has something to do with keeping the games from running too late. The thinking being that due to the score being tied, the teams must be rather evenly matched and a tie can be dealt with. There's also the possibility that it has something to do with having kids playing for that long. Some teams may not have very many players for a particular position, such as quarterback. So by having the same one or two people playing that position for hours on end, it starts to smell a bit like a child protection issue. Dismas|(talk) 01:00, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
That's a good point. As I recall, high school games also have just 12-minute quarters instead of 15 as college and NFL do. But the physical stress factor I expect is part of the reason regular season NFL games only allow for one overtime period. You don't want to expend excessive energy on just one game, unless it's a playoff with "no tomorrow", hence a tie would not work. Baseball and basketball are different - they can go on forever, even during the regular season. Japan has a 12-inning rule. There could be some merit to that. Meanwhile, to find the specific answer to the original question, I suspect he would have to resort to tracking down newspapers on microfilm for the given games and find out what was up. I say that because it's been tough enough to try to find the chronology of NFL and college football rules. Finding the evolution of 50 individual states rules, or even one, could be a serious challenge. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:11, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
From personal experience, most highschool and other pre-college community leagues do indeed tend to let ties stand in the regular season and force overtime in the playoffs.NByz (talk) 05:49, 3 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks to all for the above discussion. It was very helpful. Thank you! (64.252.68.102 (talk) 14:06, 2 March 2010 (UTC))[reply]

Radio Bob and 9Live[edit]

Why can't Radio Bob continue the ADR signal after the shutdown of the analog satellite signal of the German TV channel 9Live? --88.76.18.70 (talk) 16:42, 28 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]