In the 21st century, major sports have had to walk an interesting tightrope. They’ve had to balance maintaining the flow of the game in an increasingly impatient society, with rules and regulations that are fair to the participating teams.
Before the 2019 college football season, the NCAA made a tweak to their overtime format. Instead of games reaching an inordinate number of overtimes(which in college football, meant teams kept matching scores on drives starting from the opponent’s 25 yard line), they decided to implement a more sudden death approach. Once a game reached its fifth overtime, teams would take turns attempting two point conversions. Before the 2021 season, that rule was updated, so that this would take place starting with the third overtime. Predictably, and by design, this would theoretically reduce the number of plays involving athletes running on empty three to four hours after the game kicked off.
The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved a change to overtime rules in football: https://t.co/VVxaqiJPiD pic.twitter.com/r72BajRKTw
— Inside the NCAA (@InsidetheNCAA) 5Etfw">April 22, 2021
Through October 23rd*, there were 84 NCAA football games that required overtime, and 94