Ncaa Moves To Cut Overtimes By Booting Extra-Point Kicks

A move to reduce the number of overtimes in college football has been approved by the NCAA Football Rules Committee.

The committee adopted a rule at its annual meeting this week in Tempe, Ariz., to ban extra-point kicks and require two-point conversion attempts beginning in the third overtime period.

Two-point conversions are about half as successful as extra-point kicks, and the committee said it believes that would result in fewer ties after the second overtime.

The NCAA said that 8 of 49 overtime games in Division I-A and Division I-AA lasted three or more extra periods last season. The average was 1.62 in Division I-A and 1.83 in Division I-AA.

The committee also approved a rule requiring a game to be declared a tie if it is in overtime but cannot be completed due to weather, darkness or other conditions.

College football bowl games do such a fine job promoting the sport that there’s no reason to scrap them for a Division I college football playoff system anytime soon, the NCAA’s top official said.

At the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association trade show in Atlanta, Cedric Dempsey, the executive director of the NCAA, said, “The bowl system has real value in promoting the game. I don’t see it changing in the near future.”