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Mercy Rule in Basketball

From Steve Geddes (his second time posting a question - thanks Steve!):

We are looking for a mercy rule for our youth basketball program. Do you have any suggestions?

Also, as I'm sure you know, car pool requests and coach requests undermine the concept of balanced teams. Too many coaches don't want balanced teams, they want five or ten of the very best players they can get. I assume you have made an honest attempt to avoid such problems and created a balanced set of teams to start with. But sometimes despite the best effort to create balance these situations do occur. What should you do?

Different sports have rules that kick in when one team is far ahead of the other. Usually the rule ends the contest prematurely (in the fifth inning) as in the 10 run Mercy Rule in youth league or high school softball and baseball. I prefer a different type of Mercy Rule, one that kicks in before the game is completely out of hand. This keeps the game going and keeps the kids playing, which should be an objective. For example, there are football programs that have a rule that says if one team is losing by more than 28 points, it retains possession of the ball after a touchdown until the score is closer, say 14 points.

A variation of such a rule for basketball might be that if one team is leading by more than, say, 15 points the losing team retains possession of the ball after it scores until the lead is cut to 10. Of course, if the bad team is so bad that it can't score this won't make the game closer but it could keep the winning margin from getting bigger and bigger as time goes by. Since this doesn't stop the game prematurely, the kids play more.

Another possibility would be to require mandatory substitution of the leading team's top scorer(s) until the game is closer. When games get out of hand the coach of the better team should make such substitutions without the need for a special rule but unfortunately lots of coaches won't do it.

A third suggestion is one that is used in our local intramural basketball league. When one team goes in front by 10 points, play continues but baskets made by the leading team do not increase the margin. In other words, neither team can build up a lead bigger than 10.

The point at which these special rules kick in depends upon the scoring in each specific league. The younger kids usually don't score as much and so the kick in point would be lower than in a league in which the kids score more.