Tiebreaker Approved for Bowl Games

Nebraska scores in the Orange Bowl with seconds left and Coach Tom Osborne faces a decision.

His team is trailing Miami, 31-30, with the national championship on the line. Does he kick the extra point and pray a tie won’t ruin the Cornhuskers’ No. 1 ranking? Or should he go for two?

On that memorable Miami night in 1984, those were Osborne’s only choices. But now, in a rule reversal Nebraska fans probably wish had taken effect 11 years earlier, he’ll have a third option.

He could kick the extra point and take his chances in the tiebreaker system that every bowl must employ beginning next season.

The NCAA’s special events committee, acting on a recommendation by the football rules committee, decided this week to require all bowls to use the overtime tiebreaker system, which lower divisions already use in playoff games.

If the rule had been in effect the night Nebraska failed on a two-point conversion and Miami won its first national championship, there would have been a coin flip at the end of a 31-31 regulation tie and the game clock would have been turned off.

In overtime, each team gets four downs from the opponent’s 25-yard line. The team with more points after each has had a possession wins the game; if the score remains tied, the process is repeated.

Say Nebraska wins the coin flip and elects to take the ball. Miami then gets to choose on which 25-yard line the ball will be placed.

The Cornhuskers would keep the ball until they scored, committed a turnover or failed to convert on fourth down. Then Miami would get the ball on the same 25-yard line with the same rules.

The game would end when the score is no longer tied at the end of an overtime.

“It makes the last two minutes of the game more exciting if you have a chance to tie,” said Vanderbilt Coach Rod Dowhower. “That’s what it’s all about. People come to see excitement, be a part of it, and that will certainly enhance it.”