National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - News & Features

September 30, 1996

Let there be light

Yes, new overtime rule eliminates ties -- unless it becomes too dark to finish play

BY J. GREGORY SUMMERS
STAFF WRITER

When the NCAA Football Rules Committee agreed last February to require the use of overtime in all games tied after four quarters, sports editors across the country began asking the same incisive question:

frontpage "Can I delete the 'tie' column from my standings?"

The answer: Yes, but keep the old "W-L-T" format handy -- just in case.

The mandate to use the tiebreaker will result in an increase in the number of games that go to overtime. This is obvious in Divisions I-A and II, in which overtime was not used during the regular season before this year; but it also is true in Divisions I-AA and III, where it had been used sporadically for conference games but now will be standard procedure.

And the increased likelihood of a lengthy overtime game during the shorter days of mid- to late November has some conference commissioners concerned that they may have to declare a game a tie because of darkness.

"If it's late in the season and cloudy, it can get pretty dark between 4:30 and 5 o'clock at the stadiums in our conference that are located in deep valleys," said Barry Blizzard, commissioner of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, a Division II conference.

Blizzard said an emphasis on the passing game throughout the conference increased average game length and forced the conference to move its standard starting time from 1:30 to 1 p.m. two years ago. Since the change, darkness has not threatened to halt any games.

"We had a couple of 1:30 games that probably should have been stopped, but we have not had a problem since we moved the start up a half-hour," Blizzard said. "But the overtime could put us back to where we were."

Blizzard and Ohio Athletic Conference Commissioner Timothy W. Gleason see the same type of game posing a threat.

"Without overtime, we've crept close enough to darkness on occasion that a late-season game between two passing teams that goes into overtime could present a problem," Gleason said. "It may well be that the overtime is short enough that it won't significantly lengthen the game, but it's not like a shoot-out in soccer, where the game ends right away."

fbfog

Tie probability remote

Still, the probability of darkness halting a game remains fairly remote. Several factors would have to be present at one time for it to pose a realistic threat to a 1 p.m. game:

* The game would almost certainly have to occur after daylight-saving time ends.

* The weather probably would have to be stormy or heavily overcast.

* There would have to be frequent clock stoppages, most likely caused by television timeouts or an emphasis on the passing game, or one or more unusually long delays (to treat an injury, for example).

* The game would have to be tied after regulation and go to several overtimes (see the accompanying box for information on the frequency and duration of overtime games).

This is such an unlikely scenario for John Van Why, commissioner of the run-oriented Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, that he has yet to address the possibility of a darkness suspension with coaches or athletics directors.

And why should he? This season is no different than any other since the IIAC began using the tiebreaker in 1981.

"Only one of our fields has lights, but we've never had a problem with darkness," Van Why said. "A three-hour game is long for us, and I can't think of a game we've had that went past two overtimes. So that gives us plenty of daylight both for our 1:30 starts and our 1 o'clock starts late in the year."

But Van Why acknowledges that "dumb luck" could intervene at some point and said he plans to bring up the issue at the next conference meeting.

Even at the Division I-A level, where most stadiums have lights and some that do not are temporarily illuminated for television coverage, darkness has been discussed by several conferences.

"We've determined that the referee will make the decision (on whether or not to call the game) based solely on the safety of the players and in consultation with both coaches," said Jerry A. Ippoliti, commissioner of the Mid-American Athletic Conference. "If the game cannot continue, it's considered over. And if it's a tie, it's a tie."

Tie or no contest

Commissioners who have established darkness policies have done so because the likelihood of a suspension, though still remote, is greater now than it was when the tiebreaker was not universal. And if a game is stopped because of darkness, severe weather or an unforeseen circumstance such as a power failure, conference policies could determine the outcome.

Regardless of the cause, NCAA football rules give the referee sole authority to suspend a game. In consultation with game management, he then can determine whether to resume play or send both teams home. From that point on, the outcome of the game is up to the two coaches or conference regulations.

In games involving teams from the same conference, the conference office will determine whether to resume the game at a later date or declare the game over. The score at the time of suspension will stand if the game is terminated; thus, a game terminated in overtime will end in a tie.

In nonconference games, the coaches must agree to either resume or terminate the game. But if they cannot agree (for example, one coach wants to finish the game at a later date and the other wants to declare it over), the game is ruled a "no contest," according to football playing rules.

Commissioners at all levels agree that resuming the game at a later date is not feasible. Even if the teams could find a common open date, travel and game administration expenses would be prohibitive for running perhaps eight plays.

Ippoliti believes the tiebreaker is good for college football, but sees no other alternative to a tie when an overtime game cannot be completed and would like the ambiguity removed from the rule.

"Darkness was not addressed when the rule was passed, and it appeared to be left to the conferences to handle," he said. "I think that in the best interest of college football, there should be a uniform rule established for games called because of darkness."

John R. Adams, secretary-rules editor of the Football Rules Committee, said the committee could do so at its annual meeting in February.

"The committee may take a look at the 'no contest' rule at its next meeting," Adams said. "But in the unlikely event of a suspension in a nonconference game, most of which occur during daylight-saving time, it's in both coaches' interest to agree on a resolution. Nobody wants a no contest."

Adams also indicated that the rules committee would not prevent championships committees from evaluating teams based on the score at the time of termination in a no contest.

If Gleason were on one of these committees, he would not think twice about seeing a tie on the ledger.

"Our conference has been playing football for 95 years, and through all those years, we've not had a problem ending a game in a tie," he said. "I don't think it would be any more of a problem in 1996."

The sports editors who have to reinsert a "T" column and several hundred zeros in their standings probably would not agree.

The NCAA tiebreaker remains a mystery to the majority of college teams and observers of major-college football. However, it has been used since 1981 in some Divisions I-AA and III conferences to eliminate ties from the determination of NCAA championship qualifiers. In addition, the tiebreaker has been used throughout the history of the championships (since 1978 in Division I-AA and since 1973 in Divisions II and III).

Tiebreaker really isn't all that new

Following are data about the frequency and duration of overtime games in the three championships since 1985, when the location of the ball at the beginning of each overtime possession was moved from the 15-yard line to the 25-yard line:

Division -- Games--OT Games (%)--Avg. # OTs

I-AA--161--9 (5.6%)--1.78

II--141 -- 8 (5.7%) -- 1.75

III -- 165 -- 9 (5.5%) -- 1.22

Following are comparable data from regular-season games:

Division -- -- OT Games -- Avg. #

(Year) -- Games -- (%) -- OTs

I-AA (1993-95) -- 570 -- 19 (3.3%) -- 1.37

I-AA (1996) -- 219 -- 9 (4.1%) -- 1.44

I-A (1996) -- 197 -- 4 (2.0%) -- 1.00

Note: Includes only games in which the tiebreaker would have been used. 1996 games through September 21. Divisions II and III regular-season data are not available.

Critics of the tiebreaker claim that it allows coaches to "play it safe" and go for a tie late in a game. A comparison of the percentage of games that were tied after four quarters (i.e., ties before 1996 and overtime games this year) at comparable points in recent seasons follows:

Year -- -- Tie/OT -- % Tie/

(Through) -- Games -- Games -- OT

1994 (Sept. 24) -- 206 -- 1 -- 0.5%

1995 (Sept. 23) -- 205 -- 3 -- 1.5%

1996 (Sept. 21) -- 197 -- 4 -- 2.0% --