General Consencus - Games Stopped for Weather

Longhorn85

Longhorn85

Six-man fan
So with the storms that ran through North Texas on Thursday night, a bit of a quandary arose. Two games were stopped prior to half time, and were not resumed. Throckmorton was leading Grady 38-22 with a little over 3 minutes remaining in the 2nd quarter when the game was stopped for weather. This game could not be rescheduled because of an nonavailability of refs for the weekend. Also, Motley County was leading Highland 6-0 early in the 1st quarter, and the coaches could not agree on trying to reschedule.

So this leads me to the question at hand. Seeing as how these games are pre-district games, the UIL and individual Districts do not track the outcome, they are basically just exhibition games. If these had been District games, the District Committee would first address the situation, and if someone was unhappy with the Committee's decision, it could then be appealed to the UIL.

How should these games go in the books then, for historical reference? Is it basically just left up to interpretation, or are they considered cancelled? What is the general consensus here?
 
As you said, these games are pre-district. Obviously I wouldn't go so far as to say they are meaningless, but there is very little but pride on the line.
With expenses being what they are, it would be my desire that they not be rescheduled. Maybe you could do something like baseball does and call it a complete game after x amount of time in a certain quarter.
Whatever is done rest assured that not all will be satisfied.
 
smokeyjoe53":1mmbntjc said:
Maybe you could do something like baseball does and call it a complete game after x amount of time in a certain quarter.
Click to expand...

In district games this applies to the game ending at half time or later. How would you then think these should go in the books?
 
My gut feeling is this is a forfeit if they have time to reschedule and one doesn't wish to. Now in the case of a lack of officials, the game wasn't half played, so it is hard to consider a complete game... so cancelled...
 
Two considerations here:

  • Win / Loss record ...

    Stats:
    __ 1) Individual
    __ 2 ) Team


Win / Loss considerations:

In being a non district game it could be declared a non game ... same as an open date
__ a) Would make no difference in the district race
__ b) How would it be viewed for state rankings ?
  • Which really makes no difference in the scheme of things except for bragging rights.

So how the game is viewed as for the record to me it easiest is just to make it a non game. I know it does not seem fair to a team that is far ahead but if you start making a point total differentiation based on time of game or half played it is just a slippery slope that will always be in question. The non game option is absolute. That or you have to award the game to whomever is ahead at the time the game is called.

Coaches records to be considered ??

So to me a non game is the best option.

Except for yards have been gained, passes thrown and caught, takles, punts, kicks, returns, interceptions and team stats come into play here. How are those handled being fair to all ? It seems harsh to just cancel all of that effort. The use of the stats is a little easier to see in six man since so many games end at the half or a shortened by some amount of time because of the 45 rule.

The forfeit option is on the table but where do you draw the line on that ? Travel distances and expense come into play here for some schools along with mitigating circumstances where kids might have Saturday obligations that have to be met. So a school is saddled with a forfeit because of either economic or logistical burdens. Again no stats for the individual or team.

Interesting problem ... What is the perfect solution ?





 
Justobserving.. Very good dissection of the situation, but again, no final answer... thus is the quandary.... Granger .. I see your point on the idea of the forfeit, but likely it would have been a non-issue anyway, and we are treating individual games differently in basically the same situation
 
In my most unbiased opinion, I would call the Highland vs Motley game Canceled.. and give Throck a win. Otherwise i just have to call them both non-games that were cancelled. Beyond that, we would be basing the Highland game as a forfeit based on hearsay. Unless the Highland coach comes out and says he just said, "yes , i will the forfeit" ... i can't see it right to call that a game. And anyone who knows me should know on the Thorckmorton game, I am giving a Strawn grad, who is now coaching at Throckmorton a win... sooo... I am just saying
 
I think that they all should not count as a game...meaning not on the official record and no stats for players or team are eligible to be counted toward season totals or to be apart of the official record.

Weather can not be helped and teams, schools, coaches, players all have schedules to keep and may not be able to reschedule for any number of legit reasons.

I do not think it is fair to award a win or a loss because of bad weather...and it is obvious that even if MC v highland could agree on a rescheduled game they wouldn't have been able to get refs anyway...just like Grady and Throckmorton.

All those games should not count toward ether teams records and they should all be allowed to try to fill their open date to fill a 10 game regular season schedule if needed.

Leman
 
The fact is the refs called the game because of the UIL's rules on weather. Therefore at that point they are all just as if no game was ever played.

If one team doesn't want to reschedule why would they have to be forced to? It has already been officially decided as a cancellation. Logically it does not make sense to award a win to those schools especially since there was a lot of game left to be played...I personally saw a team winning 32-0 at half time and they lost the game...
 
The only reason that I could think of would be the fact that some school sign UIL contracts agreeing to play in the competition, if a school then turns around and decides not to fulfill the contract then that team could be forced to forfeit.
 
My understanding is that MC called the UIL. They wanted to reschedule and Highland didn't. They were told to take the win.

It is a weird situation. You don't want to hurt anyone's feelings BUT that's not a reality. I would love to give the win to Throck, but... just hard to do so when os much left and both teams openly trying to get it rescheduled.

Yes, you have to treat game differently. All situations are different. Some teams 'want' to reschedule more than others
 
From what I've read mine will not be a popular opinion but... If the teams wait around an hour or two to finish and still can't do so the team leading wins. As someone said no one can control the weather. Games are played in ALL other types. I consider lightning an act of GOD. Game over. Both teams showed up. Both played. Neither cancelled. Neither gave up. Game ended for safety of all there.
Re scheduling with one open date, officials, almost impossible.
Then again, in the first 5-7-8 minutes ???
A tie for ranking purposes ? What would that do to the "Toy".?
 
I didnt do an official pick on the MC Highland game, because I had already written like 2500 words and wanted to get stuff posted.. but I was going to pick MC by 30+ anyway... wouldnt have made much difference.. I picked T-Rock over Grady too, and i doubt that game would have changed much if the game was completed.. aside from T-Rock running away with it
 
I think this is one of the oddest cases of a game account I have seen in a while (read about a raccoon causing a power outage and a game stopped and not finished because of it)...

MC has called the UIL and explained the situation and the UIL told them to take the win by forfeit...Highland has not contacted the UIL by my understanding of it (they might before this is over)...so if the UIL says win for MC..its a win for MC
 
Shirley this has been addressed in past in Texas HS football history. I know awareness has increased in recent years but remember games with lightning close by that were not called in years gone by. Ignorance was bliss. Standing in wet grass in the open or elevated in metal stands with tall light poles around with lightning around is not smart.
As for the craziness, Waylon wrote "I've always been crazy but it's kept me from goin' insane".
 

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