When I started officiating, in the late 1980's, very few sub varsity fields had a game clock. We kept the clock on the field and tried to be as honest with it as was reasonable, but we also did things like never end 1st or 3rd quarter on anything other than a 1st down, and kept it moving in blowouts. Games rarely went more than about 1 hour and 15 min. Yes, some guys cheated really badly by doing a running clock for about 10 min.
What I have found now with these modern offenses is they throw the ball more, and wind up stopping the clock much more. These young coaches are screaming that we have to officiate the games just like Friday night. Subsequently, sub varsity games seem to be lasting much longer, at all levels. I had a 6 man game last Thursday that went 1 hour and 45 minutes, and they were running 6 min quarters! We did everything to keep it moving along, but the clock operator didn't help us and 12 time outs and a combined scored of over 90 points killed us. I had a couple of 8th grade games go 2 hours last year. Unreal. My opinion is, and take it for what it's worth, that no middle school team should be playing a game longer than about 1 hour and 20 minutes. And, unless you have lights, there is no way you get in a second game starting this week with the sun going down earlier.
Does anyone else feel these games are just too long now days? What's the solution? I want to be able to start the clock on all oob plays and incomplete passes outside of 2 min in each half. This is really a safety concern. Seems like the end of the 3rd quarter those kids are dropping like flies, injuries and cramps. If you don't think it is a problem, God bless you for wanting to work those marathons.
