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Prep school team forfeits because other team is "too good"

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Smallpotatoes, Oct 14, 2010.

  1. Smallpotatoes

    Smallpotatoes Well-Known Member

    http://www.boston.com/sports/schools/football/articles/2010/10/05/st_georges_calls_an_audible/

    A week after this was written, it was agreed that it would be a forfeit.
    Of course, this news drew the predictable knee-jerk responses about how it's another example of how soft society has become such as this column:
    http://www.eagletribune.com/sports/x935815757/What-lesson-is-learned-from-quitting.

    If the worst thing that could have happened was losing 84-0, I'd agree. Suck it up and play the game.
    But in football when there's a physical mismatch, it's not just a matter of egos getting bruised.
    Here, you have a team with three 300-pounders on the line playing a team with few players over 200 pounds. Yes, football does involve a certain risk of injury, but how much is too much?
     
  2. Bob Cook

    Bob Cook Active Member

    The decision to forfeit makes sense in the Age of Awarenss about Concussions. In the cab on the way to the train in which I now sit, I heard a USA Football ad warning about concussions. I can imagine the prep school figured it wasn't in the business of getting young brains scrambled.
     
  3. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    As I understand it, these schools are old rivals, but as the game has gotten bigger for the high school super-programs, the one team has turned itself into a destination school for football players, not unlike Oak Hill for basketball, and is loaded up with many high-level Division I prospects. They aren't even playing the same sport anymore.

    There may be a bigger division of talent and philosophy at these two schools than there would be between Boston College and Harvard. I hope the team that's going after all the glory has to cross four state lines to fill its schedule next year.
     
  4. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    If the talent disparity between the schools has really gotten to the point it's actually physically unsafe for the teams to be on the field together, this is a perfectly sensible solution.

    It's much much preferable to Lawrence Academy rolling out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter, and then immediately everybody start pissing and moaning that they have to remove all their good players, quit passing, quit giving the ball to any good running backs, etc etc blah blah, quit doing anything like actually trying, lest they hurt the feelings of the poor little St. George's team.

    FWIW, the game should absolutely be counted as a forfeit loss.

    If you are so utterly terrified of the opponent you feel you can't even set foot on the field with them, it's certainly your right (and even responsibility) to pull out of the game, but it is incumbent on you to do it in time for the opponent to find somebody else to fill their schedule. Two or three days doesn't get it. Forfeit, you lose.
     
  5. Smallpotatoes

    Smallpotatoes Well-Known Member

    I used to cover a school in that league and at the time (five or six years ago) scouting was not allowed. That may not be true anymore. I'm not sure. They also didn't begin practice until classes started and the season was shorter than the one in the state associations' schools.
    Recruiting was allowed (or at least it wasn't explicitly forbidden) though I'm not sure what kind of financial assistance may be given based on athletic ability.
    One of those schools needs to think long and hard about whether or not its philosophy meshes with the rest of the league's.
     
  6. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest

    If the disparity is so obvious, why is the small school still scheduling the powerhouse?
     
  7. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Exactly. These two schools shouldn't be in the same class if they can't handle the competition.
     
  8. Smallpotatoes

    Smallpotatoes Well-Known Member

    They're in the same league. Not every team in the league plays everyone else in football, but I'm not sure how the schedule is done.
     
  9. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    If any particular team in a particular league is a) so big and tough, or b) so wimpy and scrawny, that physical safety is (unusually) at risk by even allowing them on the field together, the league needs to kick somebody out.
     
  10. Smallpotatoes

    Smallpotatoes Well-Known Member

    Exactly. Somebody needs to think about whether either school really belongs in that league.
     
  11. Smash Williams

    Smash Williams Well-Known Member

    Is this a "league" like Missouri's conferences, where it has no bearing on who makes the playoffs? I hated that arrangement. Or is it equivalent to most state's districts, where winning the district gives you a post-season berth?
     
  12. Smallpotatoes

    Smallpotatoes Well-Known Member

    It's a group of private schools that's independent of the various state associations in New England. None of them have postgraduate students. The ISL is a member of the NEPSAC and teams from the ISL do play in "Bowl Games" with other NEPSAC schools.
     
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