Texas football: Big 12 director of officials talks new overtime rules
College football overtime is a great model, but it can get better.
Last year's seven-overtime marathon between Texas A&M and LSU prompted some safety concerns from the college football brass and led to a tweak for the overtime rule in 2019.
Staring with the fifth overtime, teams will no longer line up at the 25 yard line, but rather proceed directly to two-point conversion tries.
In what amounts to American football's version of a shootout, each team will trade two-point tries until one team is stopped and the other isn't in an effort to cut down on the number of plays a player is involved in.
While this certainly sounds fun and exciting, it's not the ideal way to determine a winner, especially when two teams have matchup that evenly for that long.
Here are are two suggestions that could make college football overtime better and alleviate some of the concerns for player safety.
Back teams up to the 50 yard line
Each team currently starts college football overtime well inside most kickers' field goal range and barring a litany of penalties, a disastrous series of plays that result in yardage lost or a turnover, teams are all but guaranteed at least a shot at a very makable field goal.
Why not back them up a bit? We would still see exciting long touchdowns that end games, but we could also see fourth down conversion attempts from the 43 yard line or great defensive stands that snuff out even a shot at a field goal.
It would mean a better test each team's ability to play both offense and defense and would still provide the same do-or-die feeling we currently get from college football overtime.
Bring back ties
Relax, I am not talking about returning to a time when a game is ruled a tie at the end of regulation, but rather calling the game after say, the fourth OT.
Ties aren't fun for either team's fans, but are probably a more accurate way to score games that go on this long and could provide a fun data point for debate when talking about who gets in to the college football playoff. How would the committee view a tie?
Neither of these ideas are perfect, but when games are being decided by trading two-point tries, it is nice to keep an open mind and search for other options.
