[nuclearnerd]

Last week I had the opportunity to watch FC Barcelona crush their visiting team along with 100k friends in Europe largest stadium. At the end of the match, it struck me that we could import a rule from soccer (football) to FRC.

Right now, refereed infractions give the opposing alliance foul points. This practice kinda sucks on a few levels. The point value for each type of foul is hard for the GDC to judge. We've all seen games where the difference between win and lose is a dicey call. Worse than that, foul points prevent teams and spectators from knowing the score balance, since they are not tallied until after the buzzer.

Instead, I propose the following. Every infraction adds 10 (or 5 or whatever) seconds of "extra time" for the aggrieved side. The match may end at the buzzer for one alliance, but if the other alliance has been fouled, they get a few more seconds to play unopposed. This would keep the drama going, and make for an exciting new dynamic, instead of just waiting for the final score to pop up.

I recognize the idea needs some work. Event hosts aren't going to like the uncertain match schedule, and there needs to be something to prevent teams from just disabling their opponents (flipping or ramming) so that they can't use their extra time. But if these can be worked out, I think it's a fun idea.

Thoughts?