NCAA: Overtime Needs An Overhaul

By Noah Davis UsFANS.com Managing Editor

College football will do anything to distance itself from the NFL. We've heard it timae and time again from the powers-that-be of college football that insist on protecting the God-given sanctity of amateurism.

Puh-lease.

Nearly everything college football has done over the last decade - conference expansion, BCS (read: revenue sharing: BCS) - has moved it closer to the pro game.

And we have proof – the "new" overtime system.

In its zeal to rid the game of ties, the NCAA reinvented a tiebreaker system and gave it a recognizable name to uphold that precious sanctity. This isn't overtime, it's who gets lucky and who doesn't.

There is no strategy involved. It's anything you can do, I can do, too - until one of us blows it. Put the ball at the 25-yard line and try to score. The team that doesn't match its opponent's score loses.

The system is driven by offense and revolves around uncertainty on defense. You simply can't afford to take chances on defense and give up a big play. Defenses are forced to play base sets and hope someone makes a play, or someone on the offense makes a mistake. It's that simple.

If this monotonous mess doesn't end after two overtimes, teams are forced to go for two points on touchdown conversions. In other words, the only chance for strategy and decision-making ends after the second overtime. Presumably, this decision was made because teams would continue to score and kick conversions, and the game could last into the next day.

Here's a novel concept: How about sudden-death overtime? Kick it off, and the first team that scores wins. If neither team scores in the allotted 15 minutes, it's a tie. There's a league that does it now, and it's only the most popular, successful sports entity in the nation.

But instead of playing an extra quarter complete with strategy and decision-making, we've moved backward to the same system most high schools use. It's a quick and easy way to end the game so underpaid officials can get home on Friday night and schools don't have to pay overtime to an overworked bus driver.

The NCAA followed a high school quick fix instead of the NFL's proven standard. Then again, college football doesn't want to be like the NFL, remember? Besides, an overtime tie probably would confuse that straightforward and even-handed BCS system, anyway.

Article courtesy of UsFANS.com