Teams will now be forced to attempt two-point conversions in the second overtime.
On Thursday afternoon, the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel announced a change to college football’s overtime rules that will go into effect for the 2021 football season.
Teams will now be required to attempt a two-point conversion after a touchdown in the second overtime period, whereas the two-point conversion attempt was previously required during the third overtime.
According to a press release, this change is being made “to limit the number of plays from scrimmage and bring the game to a quicker conclusion.”
This became a focus for the NCAA after Texas A&M and LSU played seven overtimes in 2018, with the Aggies winning by a score of 74-72. It was the highest-scoring game in Football Bowl Subdivision history and lasted nearly five hours.
If the game reaches a third overtime period, teams will now attempt alternating two-point conversions – instead of starting another drive at the opponent’s 25-yard line – until a winner is determined. This was previously done once the game went to a fifth overtime.
Ohio State is 11-2 in overtime games since it was implemented in 1996, with the only losses coming at the hands of Northwestern in 2004 and Purdue in 2011.
Notable wins include the double-overtime victory over Miami (Fla.) in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl national championship, a win over Iowa in 2009 that sent the Buckeyes to the Rose Bowl, a double-overtime victory at Penn State in 2014 that ended on defensive end Joey Bosa’s walk-off sack and the double-overtime win over Michigan in 2016 that featured Curtis Samuel’s game-winning touchdown run.
The longest game in school history, meanwhile, was the triple-overtime win over N.C. State and quarterback Phillip Rivers in 2003, and the most recent overtime game for Ohio State was the 52-51 win at Maryland in 2018.
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