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I can envision it now. A College Football Playoff National Championship for the ages sees the two best teams in the country head to overtime. Then, after neither team is able to separate itself from its counterpart in the first two overtimes, the two elite squads trade two-point conversion attempts. That’s when the entire season — all those workouts, hours of practice, online classes, games, time in the training room — will be decided by a series of what are essentially coin flips.
Won’t it be wonderful?
That’s the scenario the NCAA has now presented as a possibility thanks to its changes to the overtime format.
If you haven’t seen yet, the NCAA has drastically changed the OT format in college football. The first step is that teams will be forced to go for a two-point conversion following touchdowns in the second overtime rather than in the third. The big change comes afterward, however, when instead of getting the ball at the 25-yard line in the third overtime, the teams will simply alternate two-point conversion attempts. The first one to break serve wins.
There’s a couple parts of this revamped format that bother me.
First of all, I’d like to see the NCAA follow the lead of the NHL and MLB before them. The NHL long ago implemented a three-on-three OT format to be followed by a shootout, and MLB has recently decided to begin each extra inning with a runner on second base to hasten the end of games. However, when each sport reaches the postseason, these rules go out the window because playoff games shouldn’t end in such trivial ways.
I hope the NCAA considers a different overtime format for College Football Playoff games; bowl games, however, can keep it.
My biggest question about the new format is why wait until the second overtime to force teams to go for two? If we’re comfortable having games end in two-point conversion shootouts, why can’t we force teams to go for two in the first overtime? Doing that alone would significantly reduce the chances of ever having to get to the shootout portion of overtime to begin with while shortening the games overall. That’s better for broadcast partners trying to squeeze games into tighter windows, and it’s fewer plays for the players.
Odds are this format won’t impact many games overall, and I probably won’t mind seeing some Friday night game between Mountain West teams ending slightly sooner because of it. The rule might be stupid, but stupidity has been a part of college football just as long as marching bands and sneaking flasks into the student section have been. It’s more of a feature than a bug.
Still, c’mon, NCAA, I know it’d be out of character, but how about displaying some common sense on this?