Mags wrote:

This guy doesn't strike me as someone who has a future with ESPN, or who may be the next head coach at Tennessee, but at least he's given some thought to one of the moral issues in college sports:

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1110/hess_running_up_the_score.php3

I guess it shows how quickly I tune out most of today's commentators.  I was not aware that anyone had tried to justify running up the score as a matter of obligation to the fans.  Frankly, I always enjoyed games when players I didn't get to see often spent most to the time on the field in the 4th quarter.  But of course I may not typify the fan of today.

Of course I'm talking about the days when 31 to 7 was considered a blow-out and a comfortable lead going into the 4th quarter.

One of the guys I work with coaches a Pop Warner team, and there was a rule instituted a couple of years ago that if you win by more than 28 points, you have to appear before the local board of directors to explain why you "ran up the score" or face the possibility of suspension.
What's resulted in some instances is coaches telling kids to run out of bounds or drop to the ground instead of scoring in lopsided games. And youth teams usually have no more than 25 kids on a roster, so it's not like a high school or college team where you have the luxury of playing the scout team in a lopsided game.
I don't know if there's an accurate way to judge running up the score by just looking at the score itself. Is a team scoring after 11-play, 80-yard drives consisting of running plays with the second string in the game, or is the first team still putting the ball in the air?
And the flavor of the month in HS football these days is the spread. The HS team from the town next door gets accused of running it up all the time, but they're a small school that went to the spread because they lack numbers and kids with size. So they almost have no running game that can kill the clock.

But some coaches are just assholes. A few years ago, there was so much bitterness between two coaches of rival teams in our league that one of them sent his star halfback in for a 2-point conversion with a minute left in the game to hang a 50-0 score on the other guy.

It is hard to blame kids from gathering stats once they get to the point that it could mean getting drafted or not getting draft.  Or in the NFL when I player can get a big payday by having a better QB rating or yard per rush average.  In baseball there are the unwriten rules but nobody expects a player to strike out just because they have a 8 run lead in the 9th.