Ncaa Adopts Ot For Football Rule Takes Effect Immediately, Using Same System As I-Aa

Overtime will be part of major college football this fall.

The NCAA football rules committee voted Thursday to require a tiebreaker in NCAA football games.

“The committee was particularly sensitive to the overwhelming mandate of the Division I-A coaches because the tiebreaker was already being used in other divisions,” said Vince Dooley, rules committee chairman and Georgia athletic director.

The decision does not require further approval and takes effect with the 1996 season.

The system was used in Division I-A bowl games this past year and is the same procedure used in lower-division NCAA football championships and regular-season league games in the I-AA Big Sky, Ohio Valley, Yankee and Mid-Eastern Athletic conferences. The overtime system is not sudden death as used in the NFL, and the clock is not a factor.

Each team gets one possession, starting on the opponent’s 25. The team winning the coin toss can choose to start on offense or defense, or it can choose which 25-yard line the possessions will start on. Each team begins each possession on the same end of the field.

A possession ends when a team scores, commits a turnover or fails to convert on fourth down. The game ends when the score is no longer tied at the end of an overtime.

Any score by the defense wins the game, except the return of an extrapoint attempt. A game also ends when a team trailing in the overtime commits a turnover.

Because ties do not count toward the six-victory requirement for postseason bowl qualification, the change may allow a few more teams to be eligible for bowls, Dooley said.