Old School Tie All That’s Left

Major college football coaches are scrambling for new cliches today to replace the one about a tie being as good as kissing you-know-who after the NCAA rules committee voted Thursday to require a tiebreaker for all Division I-A games beginning next fall.

The decision was a long time in the making and, sorry Notre Dame fans, comes 30 years too late to salvage the 10-10 score against Michigan State in the most famous tie game in college football history.

Had the tiebreaker been in effect in November 1966, perhaps Notre Dame Coach Ara Parseghian would not have been so reviled for running out the clock instead of going for the win in that epic battle.

The tiebreaker is already being used in all other division football championships and in several lower-division regular-season games and was used in major bowl games for the first time last season. There are tiebreakers in baseball (extra innings), basketball and hockey (overtime).

Major college football was the last holdout.

“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,” Vince Dooley, the rules committee chairman and Georgia athletic director, told the Associated Press.

The tiebreaker was used in Division I for the first time in the Las Vegas Bowl in December, when Toledo defeated Nevada, 40-37, in overtime.

Change is always difficult.

Upon learning the tiebreaker would be implemented in the Jan. 2 Fiesta Bowl, Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne hired a local high school coach in Lincoln to teach him the finer points.

Nebraska, as it turned out, never came close to needing to work out the math as it demolished Florida, 62-24, in that lopsided national championship showdown.

Thursday’s decision by the rules committee came during its annual meeting in Kansas City, Mo., and followed a vote of support for the tiebreaker at a meeting of Division I-A coaches on Sunday.

It does not require further approval.

The college tiebreaker bears no resemblance to the NFL’s, which uses sudden death.

Here’s how it works:

Each team gets one possession, starting on the opponent’s 25-yard line. 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 extra-point attempt after a touchdown. A game also ends when a team trailing in the overtime commits a turnover.

It is the same procedure used in lower-division NCAA football championships and regular-season league games in the Big Sky, Ohio Valley, Yankee and Mid-Eastern Athletic conferences.

“People who have been involved in the tiebreaker report it is very exciting, and it will help resolve problems determining conference championships,” Dooley said.

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

Not all Division I-A coaches are thrilled, according to West Virginia’s Don Nehlen, vice president of the American College Football Coaches Assn.

“I prefer a sudden-death football game,” Nehlen told the Associated Press. “If you put [the ball] on the 25-yard line, the game could go on forever.”

Nehlen must have missed December’s Las Vegas Bowl. The regulation game between Toledo and Nevada lasted more than four hours, but the overtime ended quickly as Toledo needed only four plays to score the winning touchdown from the 25. Nevada had the first possession, but managed only a field goal.

“Tie games are a crime in college football,” Nevada Coach Chris Ault said after the game. “The old guard needs to get off their butts and have tiebreakers in all games.”

Thursday, the old guard stood up.

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How the New Rule Will Work

Each team gets one possession, starting on the opponent’s 25-yard line. 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 extra-point attempt following a touchdown. A game also ends when a team trailing in the overtime commits a turnover.