‘Mercy rules’ will soon take effect when NC middle school games become blowouts
“Mercy rules” — in which athletic events end when one team takes a substantial lead — are being standardized for North Carolina middle school sports.
The State Board of Education says the aim is “to maintain dignity of the athletes.”
The mercy rules, which would go in effect for the 2023-24 school year, would guide what happens when one team builds a large lead. In those situations, the game would end immediately or the game clock would keep running to speed up completion.
The updated middle school/junior high school athletic manual with the new wording on mercy rules was presented at Wednesday’s board meeting.
“Most of our districts, which are controlled locally, already use mercy rules so that they’re not playing games that last for many hours,” said Ellen Essick, the state Department of Public Instruction’s section chief for healthy schools.
“But they asked that we put those in the manual so they’ll reflect what’s already happening and also so they’ll have something to fall back on in the middle school manual.”
Mercy rules for individual sports
The mercy rules will be used if agreed upon by both teams prior to the game or if they’ve been adopted by the conference they’re in. The rules are:
▪ In baseball and softball, the game is terminated if a team is ahead by 15 runs after three innings or 10 runs after five innings.
▪ In basketball, there is a continuous clock when a team has a 28-point advantage over its opponent in the third quarter or later. The clock would only stop for shooting fouls, timeouts, injuries and the administration of technical fouls. The clock will continue to run even if the lead drops below 28 points.
▪ In football, there is a continuous clock when a team has a 28-point advantage over its opponent at halftime or thereafter. The clock would only stop for timeouts by coaches or officials or injuries. The clock will continue to run even if the lead drops below 28 points.
▪ In soccer, the game is terminated when a team leads by seven goals at halftime or later.
This story was originally published May 31, 2023 at 4:11 PM with the headline "‘Mercy rules’ will soon take effect when NC middle school games become blowouts."
