Bull riding scoring
I promised a post on bull riding scoring, in advance of two nights of the Professional Bull Riders Enterprise tour at the Bryce Jordan Center this weekend.
As you see, the Jordan Center has been transformed in a big way. Now it's time for the show.
The key in bull riding is 8 seconds. If a rider stays on for 8, he gets a score. If he gets thrown off, he gets nothing. Simple as that.
Sometimes there are few 8s -- less than half of the rides. In a championship round with really rank bulls, there may be only 1 or 2 full 8-second rides out of the final 15.
It's tough, and if the rider makes 8 he earns it.
Let's say he makes 8. Here's how the scoring goes:
Judges can award 100 points -- 50 for the rider and 50 for the bull. Yes, the bull gets a score and a rider needs a good bull to get a top score. Get it so far?
A great score is 90 or above, and in the PBR they celebrate 90s with confetti. You might see 1 or 2 90s in a night, if you're lucky.
Most scores are in the low to mid 80s. That's when there is a score, meaning an 8-second ride.
A rider must keep one arm free at all times and the other arm on the bull rope. He will be disqualified if he touches or slaps the bull with the free arm.
A rider has to move with the bull to get the top scores. A rocky ride is a good one.
On the other hand, if a bull doesn't do much, the rider might get a re-ride -- because as we said the bull is scored too.
Now, how does the event go? In the PBR there are 45 riders and bulls at each event, so you'll see 45 rides of some kind each night.
The two scores are totaled and the championship round includes the top 15 riders. That will be Saturday night. So a rider who rides all three will be in the driver's seat, you might say. More likely, several riders will have two 8-second rides and points will determine it.
That's a bull riding scoring primer. You're now ready for Friday night at the BJC.
Ok, you gave the general overview of scoring. But I am still lost. I watched the Built Ford Tough competition this evening, and I can not figure how they scored the riders. There were 4 judges, and each scored the rider with 22 points, and the Bull had between 21 and 21.5 points from each judge. So, how did the rider get a posted score of 86.25? It seems I am missing a step
Posted by: DKirby | Sunday, October 05, 2008 at 09:09 PM