after a certain point, what's the point?

Michigan 78, Rutgers 0. Go Blue.

UofM led Rutgers 57-0 after three quarters.

When one football team leads another by 45 or 50 points, what purpose does it serve to further humiliate the other team like that? 78-0? Really? One of the more disgusting aspects of sports, IMO.

According to Wikipedia, college football does have a "mercy rule." Why it wasn't invoked during this game is beyond me, but in any case, it's actually a lame mercy rule, rarely used:

The National Collegiate Athletic Association's mercy rule provides that "Any time during the game, the playing time of any remaining period or periods and the intermission between halves may be shortened by mutual agreement of the opposing head coaches and the referee." (NCAA Football Rule 3-2-2-a)

(from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercy_rule)


New Mexico high school football has a 50-point mercy rule: If any team leads by 50 or more after halftime, the game's over. I like that. Elsewhere, they'll either shorten the game by having fewer minutes in the quarters after the game gets out of reach, or by having a running clock.

Many football coaches and hard-core football fans don't like the idea. For example, I don't think Texas has a mercy rule for high school football. I'm not surprised.

Ironically, here's a quote from Rutgers coach Kyle Flood, from back in 2013, speaking against mercy rules: "I think when you're fortunate to be in a game and you have a lead that you feel the other team can't recover form, the next thing you can do that is productive for your football team is to develop your younger players ... It's still game experience against an unknown opponent. When you get your chances, you want to take advantage of it."

Uh-huh. Flood was fired at the end of last season; not sure how current Rutgers coach Chris Ash feels about mercy rules after yesterday's game...