JUMP TO:
- Are there college football overtime rule changes for 2025?
- College football overtime rules 2025
- How long is overtime in college football?
- College football overtime rules for playoffs
- College football overtime rules 2-point conversion
- College football overtime differences from NFL
- College football overtime rules history
- Most memorable college football overtime games
- College football overtime rules debate
Many fans believe that college football is a better product than the NFL. The reasons typically cited are due to the program's traditions, personal connections to the school's playing, and the overtime rules.
It may seem silly, but the NFL has long been criticized for how it handles overtime, while the NCAA continues to refine its format to ensure the best product on the field, without keeping fans in the stadium until the wee hours of the morning. It isn't a perfect system, but the fact that the league is willing to consider alternatives and improvements has to have college football fans pleased.
Here are the latest college football overtime rules and how they compare to the NFL.
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Are there college football overtime rule changes for 2025?
There is only one main change for college football overtime in 2025, and it pertains to timeouts. Previously, each team would receive one timeout per overtime period, and if unused, it wouldn't carry over to the next overtime. Starting in 2025, teams will get a timeout in the first overtime period and a timeout in the second. If the game goes into a third overtime, teams will only be allowed to use one total timeout for the remainder of the game, regardless of its duration.
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College football overtime rules 2025
- If a game is tied at the conclusion of four quarters, it goes to overtime.
- The officials will invite each team's captains (no more than four per team) to the 50-yard line for the overtime coin toss. The designated field captain for the visiting team will call heads or tails. The winning team of the coin toss can either decide to play offense or defense, or which end of the field will be used for both possessions of that overtime period. The decision cannot be deferred.
- The team that loses the coin toss will exercise the remaining option (e.g. If the winning team decides to play offense/defense, the losing team will decide which end of the field will be used, and vice versa).
- Overtime periods consist, through the first two if necessary, of a two-possession series with each team getting one possession on offense and one on defense. The team on offense will always start at the designated 25-yard line (unless relocated by a penalty). The team on offense can choose to start its possession with the football anywhere on or between the hash marks.
- Each team will receive one timeout for every overtime period. Timeouts not used during regulation cannot be used during overtime and an unused timeout allotted for one overtime period cannot be carried over to another overtime period. Timeouts used between overtime periods will be charged to the succeeding period.
- Each team retains the ball until it scores or fails to make a first down.
- The team that scores the most points during regulation and overtime wins the game. If the game is still tied after an overtime period, there will be another overtime period.
- In 2021, the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved a change to overtime rules. Teams will be required to run a 2-point conversion play after a touchdown when a game reaches a second overtime period. Previously, a 2-point attempt was required after the third overtime period.
- Also established in 2021, if the game reaches a third overtime, teams will run alternating 2-point plays, instead of starting another drive at the opponent’s 25-yard line. This is a change from the previous rule, which started to use 2-point plays in the fifth overtime period.
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How long is overtime in college football?
There isn't a time limit on overtime in college football, which prevents the game from ending in a tie. Overtime is decided overall by which team can score the most points in a given overtime period. If they tie in any fashion, overtime continue. Once a team scores more points than their opponents in a given OT period, and their opponent is unsuccessful in tying them, the game is over.
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College football overtime rules for playoffs
In the NFL, there are differences in the overtime rules for the regular season versus the playoffs. This mainly stems from the fact that in the regular season, games can end in ties. In the playoffs, there must be a winner, so overtime continues until one is decided.
For college, the overtime rules are the exact same, no matter if you are playing in a Week 0 game in Europe or if you are in the national championship.
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College football overtime rules 2-point conversion
College football is known for its original overtime change that revolutionized the sport. Starting with bowl games in 1995, teams would start at the 25-yard line and would alternate possessions until one team scored and the other couldn't. This continued until 2019. A 2018 game between LSU and Texas A&M went seven overtimes, so the NCAA instituted that teams had to go for two starting in the third period. Then, in the fifth overtime period, teams wouldn't have possessions anymore and would alternate two-point conversion attempts until one team scored and the other didn't.
This was tweaked again in 2021. Now, teams have to go for a two-point conversion following a touchdown in the second period. Then, if the game is still tied, the third overtime onward is just alternating two-point conversion attempts.
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College football overtime differences from NFL
Let's take a look at the differences between overtimes in the NFL compared to those in NCAA.
Clock vs. No clock
When an NFL game goes into overtime in the regular season, 10 minutes are added to the clock. This is changed to 15 minutes in the playoffs. For college football, there is no game clock, just a play clock.
Tie vs. no tie
The best part about college football overtime rules is that both teams are guaranteed a possession, and the game can't end in a tie. In the NFL's regular season, ties can indeed happen.
Overtime format
In the NFL's regular season, there are 10 minutes added to the game clock. A team winning the coin toss tends to take possession. If they score a touchdown, or if there is a defensive touchdown or safety, the game is over. This presents a controversial situation where neither team is guaranteed the ball. If the first team doesn't score, it then goes to sudden death with the next point winning the game. If there is no score, the game ends in a tie.
In college football, teams alternate possessions starting on the 25-yard line. If the first team has a turnover that doesn't result in a touchdown for the defense, then the other team will get a possession on the 25-yard line to try and score. In any given overtime period, it comes down to which team can score more points. If they tie in any way, overtime continues. Starting in the third overtime period, teams don't get a true possession and must alternate two-point conversion attempts.
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College football overtime rules history
College football overtime rules have been amended significantly five times.
- 1995: Originally, overtime didn't exist, and a tie game would simply end in a tie. Starting with the bowl games in 1995, an overtime period was tested out. It saw teams start at their own 25-yard line and alternate possessions until one team scored and the other didn't.
- 1996: After testing the overtime process with the 1995 bowl seasons, it was fully adopted starting in the 1996 season.
- 1997: Starting in the third overtime period, teams were required to go for two-point conversions after a touchdown to try to prevent games from going too long.
- 2019: After 2018's seven-overtime marathon between LSU and Texas A&M, the rules were changed so that starting in the fifth overtime period, teams would alternate going for two-point conversions instead of full possessions.
- 202: The most recent tweaks to the rules made it so that teams were forced to go for two if they scored a touchdown in the second overtime, and then in the third overtime, they would just alternate two-point conversions until there was a winner.
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Most memorable college football overtime games
LSU vs. Texas A&M (7 OTs), 2018
This is the game that began the two-point conversion conversation in college football overtime, after it went seven overtimes and the NCAA determined that was too long of a game, even though it was a rare occurrence. It also set the record for most points scored in a game as Texas A&M won 74-72.
Ole Miss vs. Arkansas (7 OTs), 2001
Arkansas and Ole Miss went into overtime tied at 17. When the dust settled after seven overtimes, Arkansas escaped with the 58-56 win.
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Arkansas vs. Kentucky (7 OTs), 2003
Early 2000s Arkansas had trouble putting away opponents. In 2003, they went seven overtimes against Kentucky in what many think of as the most exhausting game ever played. When the Razorbacks finally won, the score was 71 to 63 and Arkansas had run for 483 yards in the game.
Boise State vs. Oklahoma (1 OT, Fiesta Bowl), 2007
This game only went to one overtime, but is one of the greatest endings to a college football game that you will ever see. Oklahoma had a pick six with a minute left in the game to go up six.
With 18 seconds left in the game and facing fourth and 18, Boise State pulled of an insane hook and lateral play for a touchdown to force overtime.
Adrian Peterson scored for Oklahoma to begin OT. On fourth and 2, Boise State motioned their quarterback out wide and went with a wildcat formation to get two yards. After the player faded to the right they surprisingly threw to the endzone for a touchdown. Instead of going for one, the Mustangs decided to go for two and the win. They ran the now famous State of Liberty play for the conversion. Running back Ian Johnson took the ball into the endzone for the conversion, and then went and proposed to his girlfriend who was cheerleading at the game. She said yes.
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College football overtime rules debate
ESPN
ESPN's Elle Duncan shares a common factor for those that don't like how college football does overtime. The game starting on the 25-yard line may be exciting to fans, but as Duncan states, it isn't the game of football. "You automatically eliminate special teams by not doing a kickoff and the way college does it it's whoever has the best play-calling ability rather than playing the game."
Other ESPN sentiments have been that the OT phase has become "gimmicky" and they shouldn't get to a point of alternating 2two-point conversions.
New York Post
The New York Post's Ryan Dunleavy claims that the current college football format is "too confusing for fans." He is actually in support of the NFL's overtime system, an opinion that is not very popular among college football fans.
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On3
The popular college sports news site said that the "two-point conversion shootout undermines the integrity of traditional college football."
Fans want old OT
Fans have said, “It was so, so good and then stupid … should just end in a tie rather than the travesty of 2-point conversion attempts,” and "College football had it all figured out with their OT rules and then they go ahead and ruin it.”
Overall, it seems that fans and analysts alike enjoy college football not ending in a tie for the most part, but very few are happy with the alternating two-point conversions.
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