College football’s overtime rules are one of the most controversial elements of the sport.Â
Some fans (including me!) love college football overtime for its speed and high stakes. Others loathe how random the outcomes can feel, or how fundamentally different the overtime setup is from the down-to-down situation of a regular game.Â
There’s usually just one thing that millions of fans generally agree on: they have absolutely no idea how college football overtime works.
How Does College Football Overtime Work?
The first thing to understand is that there’s no such thing as a tie in college football. That means college football overtime exists to determine a definitive winner, come what may.Â
In college football overtime, each team has a chance to possess the ball, starting at the opposing team’s 25-yard line. Typically, there are three potential outcomes: touchdown, field goal, or no points.
At the start of overtime, there is a coin flip, and the winner gets to decide one element of the overtime – whether they play offense or defense first, or what side of the field they would like to play on.Â
If the game is tied at the end of the first overtime period, the game goes to a second overtime period. Beginning in the second overtime, teams must go for two if they score a touchdown.
In the third overtime, and all subsequent overtimes, teams trade two-point conversion plays from the three-yard line until someone wins the game.Â
The new triple-overtime rules were implemented in 2021, and they have led to some truly wild endings. (It probably goes without saying that the live college football odds flip-flop all over the place in these situations.)
College Football Overtime Strategy
Most teams want to play defense first in overtime, as a large tactical advantage is inherent to playing offense second. Analytically, knowing exactly how many points you need to win the game is much better.
However, in a shootout, some teams may assume that the game will likely reach double overtime. In that instance, a team may opt to start on offense in the first overtime sothey play offense last in the second overtime.
After a while, college football overtime strategy starts to look a little bit like Inception.
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