This was the first time I attended a spring game, so I don't know what might be new/unusual compared to previous scrimmages. I thought that the system they devised for points scored by the defense (turnovers, TFL, 3 and outs, etc) was a great idea. In one of the articles I read today, I saw someone referring to this as a "modified" system.

My question for you folks is- what is the history of this type of scoring system? Have teams been doing this for years? Who came up with it? How was yesterday's system modified from pre-existing systems?

Any help you can give is appreciated.

Well I'm not sure if this answers your question but a lot of schools run their spring games in more of a real game system. Two teams split up with offense and defense on both, mixing and matching first, second string etc.

Last year we ran more of a conventional Spring Game with the two squads. I'd also never seen this scoring system before. We debated whether it was really accurate to only give the D two points for a stop (as proven by the fact that the D clearly outplayed the O but only won on the last play of the game). Seems like to really make this work, you'd have to have a more dynamic system with defensive stops awarded more points depending where on the field they occurred (ie a three and out would be worth more than a goal line stand). But ultimately it isn't really worth over thinking. This was done to give the fans a game despite our issues this Spring so kudos to the coaches for coming up with something here.

Sebastabear;842105199 said:

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Last year we ran more of a conventional Spring Game with the two squads. I'd also never seen this scoring system before. We debated whether it was really accurate to only give the D two points for a stop (as proven by the fact that the D clearly outplayed the O but only won on the last play of the game). Seems like to really make this work, you'd have to have a more dynamic system with defensive stops awarded more points depending where on the field they occurred (ie a three and out would be worth more than a goal line stand). But ultimately it isn't really worth over thinking. This was done to give the fans a game despite our issues this Spring so kudos to the coaches for coming up with something here.

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They also got 2 points for a sack, which is way too high. If you assume a defense should prevent a TD/FG about 75% of the time, I think 2 points for a stop is fair. Sacks should not have been given points, though - that's nuts.


To answer (kinda) the OP, the scoring system, or the concept, is not new. It's quite old. I have no idea where it began, but I've known of its existence for years.