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Report: Tweaks to college football OT to be discussed
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Changes to the college football overtime rules could be coming sometime in the near future.
According to a report from the Associated Press, the college football rules committee will meet in February to discuss potential tweaks and changes to the current overtime format. The conversation stems from increased concerns about player safety and increased injury risk.
Discussions about potential change started at the end of the season, following a seven-overtime marathon between LSU and Texas A&M. While it was one of the top college games of the season, the concern about player exhaustion and safety came to fruition after the lengthy contest.
“The overtime process is really not broken,” said Steve Shaw, the national coordinator of football officials according to the AP. “It’s just when you go beyond two (overtime possessions), it’s too much.”
Per the AP, one of the recommendations would be to move the start of each possession back 10-to-15 yards and eliminating any extra point tries. Currently, teams start with the football at the 25-yard-line and can attempt extra points through the first two overtime sequences.
The current format was implemented in 1996.
There is no plan to return to games ending in a tie, but the effort is to limit the number of overtimes in a given game. It’ll be interesting to see how the rules committee moves forward with this discussion and how quickly a decision is made.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB