Lots of sports have dumb rules. But what regulation, what paragraph in a rulebook, takes the cake when it comes to utter stupidity?

My vote goes to international wrestling's tiebreaker system. Don't know how many of you caught Canadian wrestler Travis Cross' first-round Olympic tournament loss to Turk Serhat Balci. Cross lost two rounds straight.

But that's an unfair representation of the bout. Cross and Balci finished each of the two rounds tied at a point apiece. As in 1-1, one-all, knotted up... tied. But, according to the rules, the person who scored last in a round wins the tiebreaker. Cross led each round 1-0, then gave up a point to Balci, so Balci won each tiebreaker.

What? You decide a tie by giving the win to the side who scores the last point? What kind of crack was being smoked when that rule was made? How about... if you were born on an even-numbered day, you win the tiebreak. Or, if you are wearing blue, you win the tiebreak. Certainly, in a competition of Olympic proportion, you can find a better tiebreaking system than last point wins!

Considering that the IOC is scrapping baseball and softball for the 2012 Games, I think Jacques Rogge and co. should take a closer look at wrestling. Because, with a tiebreaker rule like that, Olympic wrestling stoops to the level of the kind of wrestling we watch in North America, with chairs, foreign objects and slams into the Mexican announcer's table.

I want to nominate the wrestling tiebreak as the dumbest rule in all of sports. Any other suggestions?

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