[billylo]

Athletic sports' scoring system is a good place to learn from. The systems have been refined over many many years by large communities.

Football: Very few (if any) single foul directly gives an opponent some points, let alone point values that would swing the outcome of 59% of important matches in one foul.

Hockey: Fouls like tripping, high sticking, too many men on the ice, results in the offending player going into the penalty box for 2 minutes. The offending team is crippled and forced to play defence; but again no points are automatically awarded to the opposing team. For fouls that prevent a clear scoring opportunity, a penalty shot is given. You still need to beat the goalie to score on the given penalty shot.

In both cases, sufficient and seasoned referees who officiated the same game for years are there to help with minimizing mis-calls.

So, our situation is a combination of both problems (high penalty values and difficulty to make reliable calls.)

Changing rules mid season is never ideal. But, the question remains: are we better off doing nothing and "suck-it-up"; or make adjustments to make it better for a large number of games remaining in 2014? Reminder: many teams can only afford to play in one regional.

Hope this helps. Keep the conversation going! Thanks.