College football overtime rules explained: Here's what you need to know

What you need to know about overtime in college football

Sometimes, you just can't settle the matter in 60 minutes. For most of college football history, you had to. 

The sport only introduced its first overtime rule in 1996 and since then there have been a few changes.

Let's take a look at what overtime means in college football.

College football overtime rules: How does it work?

What to expect for overtime in college football games

Here's what you need to know.

+ At the end of regulation, the referee tosses a coin to determine which team has the right to possess the ball first in the overtime

+ The visiting team captain has the right to call the toss

+ The winner of the toss chooses to either play offense or defense or which side of the field to play on; that decision cannot be deferred

+ The team that loses the coin toss must take the remaining option, with the chance to choose first from the four categories in the second overtime and any future even-numbered overtimes

+ The team that wins the toss has the same options in the odd-numbered overtime periods

+ In each of the first two overtime periods, teams have one possession starting at the opponents' 25-yard line, unless a penalty occurs that moves them back on the field

+ The offense can place the ball anywhere between the hash marks

+ Each team has one timeout per overtime period; timeouts do not carry over from regulation nor between overtime periods

+ Each team keeps the ball until it fails to score, fails to make a first down, or turns the ball over

+ Starting in the second overtime period, teams must try a two-point conversion after scoring a touchdown

+ Starting in the third overtime period, teams must run alternating two-point conversions alone instead of conventional offensive touchdowns

+ College football overtime rules are the same in the regular season and the postseason

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