No-Overtime Rule May Be Reconsidered

Mater Dei football Coach Bruce Rollinson realizes the ramifications--one team leaving the field in tears, the other in a blaze of glory.

But a few days after his Monarchs tied Long Beach Poly, 21-21, in the Division I championship game, Rollinson said he might have preferred to take his chances rather than adhere to the Southern Section’s no-overtime rule in title games.

“If you’re asking me,” Rollinson said earlier this week, “I’d probably say, ‘Let’s break the tie.’ But that was not the way it was in 1999.”

That could be the way it is in 2000, though, if members of the Southern Section council, which includes one representative from every league, bring up changing the rule and later vote to do so. Their next meeting is Jan. 20.

“If the schools are uncomfortable, this is an issue that could go back before our governing board and we could vote on it again,” said Bill Clark, assistant commissioner for the section. “It’s not etched in stone.”

Poly Coach Jerry Jaso said he already has spoken to the school’s activities director, Terry Speir, about bringing up the issue at the next council meeting.

“You don’t think about these things ending in a tie,” Jaso said, “but now that it’s happened, we ought to take a look at it and see if we can get a champion out of the deal.”

The current no-overtime rule was adopted after the 1981 season. In that year’s Southern Conference title game, Foothill and El Modena were tied at the end of regulation. Both coaches were ready to walk off the field and accept the tie, Clark said. But the rules stipulated that the teams keep playing, and Foothill eventually won in overtime, 35-28.

At a subsequent meeting of the Southern Section council, the rule was changed. The next season, Rosemead and Pomona Garey tied, 19-19, in the Southeastern Conference title game.

The most recent major-division tie before Saturday’s game came in 1985, when Poly and Edison played to a 14-14 draw.