My old high school football coach has an idea. We were talking the other day about the end of a freshman football game -- not exactly life-altering, I admit, but important to those involved. He suggested that high school football coaches, as part of their training, be required to take a class on a simple responsibility: Ending The Game.

This is brilliant, and my only problem is limiting the instruction to high school coaches.

First, the high school issue. Here is the situation regarding the game that sparked the discussion: Team A (large public school) leads Team B (small private school from the same town) 20-8 with less than two minutes remaining. Team B turns the ball over on downs at roughly their own 30.

Team B has no timeouts left and no chance of winning. Remember, these are ninth graders. It's been a tough game, and much closer than Team A's coaches anticipated. There was no showboating, there were no personal fouls ... no other mitigating factor that might lead a coach to have a temporary lapse of judgment. The obvious, and classy, move is to take a knee three times and end the game. That way, everyone gets out with their dignity intact.

But, of course, no. Team A, with its first-team offense still on the field, drives toward the goal line and then calls a timeout when it becomes clear it won't have enough time to score without one.

And then, with 1.7 seconds left, Team A scores a touchdown to go ahead 26-8.

The coaches jump up and down, screaming and yelling, proud of themselves. It is a great moment in sportsmanship, and education. These teachers -- molders of young minds -- have succeeded in using their own players to beat their own chests while treating the other team like garbage.

And then -- I swear you're not going to believe this -- Team A lines up for a two-point conversion and proceeds to take a knee. On the extra point. They score a gratuitous touchdown with 1.7 seconds left and then take a knee on the extra point.

You might detect a certain unclear-on-the-concept mentality here, and you would be correct. You'd think everyone might know this, but taking a knee is done to waste time and let the clock run to end the game. Taking a knee when the clock is not running seems, well, stupid. Besides, if you're going to score with 1.7 seconds left, by all means get yourself that point after. Run a reverse or a flea-flicker. Make the other guys look foolish. There's no going back now.

And then, on Saturday, I watched the end of the Texas Tech-Texas A&M game. Tech was leading 36-25, A&M was out of timeouts and there was under a minute left. Sound familiar? The game's over, but Tech quarterback Graham Harrell is still in the game and Tech is still trying to score.

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There's a certain nobility in taking a knee. Too bad Texas Tech forgot about that.

At this point, it bears mentioning that I consider Tech coach Mike Leach to be one of the most innovative minds in at least two generations of college football coaches. He doesn't see the game through a conventional lens, and that's as inspiring as it is rare.

However.

With 24 seconds left, Leach called for a replay-review on a play that he thought resulted in a touchdown. The review didn't agree, so Tech ran another play and Harrell ran into the end zone, ball held overhead, the taunting, conquering hero.

So Tech wins 43-25 and everybody who questions Leach publicly couches it by saying or writing, "That's just the way Leach is." Well, he shouldn't be that way. He's better than that. Being consistent is no excuse for being classless and inconsiderate. It's instructive to note the announcers on the game barely addressed the issue, either because they're afraid of alienating Leach and Tech or because we're so numb to displays of crappy sportsmanship that it didn't even occur to them.

Look, I know we're not talking about backyard pingpong here, and I know the best way to make sure nobody runs up the score is to stop them in the first place. I get it. But what I don't get is how the NCAA can ascend the moral high ground by legislating player celebrations -- essentially turning the officials into mind-readers, able to ascertain motives in real time -- while doing absolutely nothing about the coaches who routinely show far worse sportsmanship by running up scores.

I'm not talking about games that turn out like USC's 69-0 win over Washington State on Saturday. When the talent disparity is that wide, a lopsided score is unavoidable. The only way to stop that would be for USC to start taking a knee before halftime, and I'm guessing that would be more demeaning for WSU than watching second- and third-teamers take dive plays into the end zone.

But maybe the NCAA's resident moralists need to think about this: What does more damage to the image of college football, Leach teaching his players to score a rub-it-in touchdown or Washington's Jake Locker throwing a football into the air to celebrate a game-changing, last-second touchdown against BYU?

One thing in favor of Leach, though: At least he was gracious enough to kick the extra point. But we'll still save him a seat in my old friend's class.

ESPN The Magazine senior writer Tim Keown co-wrote Josh Hamilton's autobiography, "Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back," which is available now on Amazon.com. Sound off to Tim here.