College football’s inaugural 12-team playoff is here. Over Friday and Saturday, four first-round games are on the slate, with the higher seed playing host. On Friday night things kick off with Notre Dame hosting Indiana, and then three games are on the Saturday slate: SMU at Penn State, Clemson visiting Texas, and then Tennessee taking on Ohio State.
Waiting in the wings? Arizona State, Boise State, Georgia, and top-seeded Oregon.
With eight evenly-matched teams in action this weekend, there is the potential that the first-ever 12-team playoff sees a game advance to overtime.
In that case, here are the rules you need to know.
College football overtime begins with a coin toss, and the team that wins the toss likely wants to defer the choice and begin on defense. The reason? Both teams are guaranteed a possession, so by going on offense second you know what you need to score to either win the game or extend the game to a second overtime.
The team that starts on offense begins their possession on their opponent’s 25-yard line, facing 1st and 10. Should they reach the end zone, they have the option to kick the extra point or attempt the two-point conversion.
Once the first team’s drive ends, the team that started on defense begins their offensive possession, again on their opponent’s 25-yard line.
If the game remains tied after this first overtime period, the game advances to a second overtime.
The rules are tweaked slightly in the second overtime. The team that started on defense first will begin the second overtime on offense, and in the second overtime, teams are required to go for the two-point conversion if they score a touchdown.
Should the game remain tied after two overtime periods, starting with the third overtime period the rules are tweaked again. Now the offenses simply attempt a two-point conversion, and the teams alternate two-point conversion attempts until a winner is determined.
Each team has one timeout per overtime period.
A good example of how this extended overtime process works comes from this year’s rivalry game between Georgia and Georgia Tech. That game required eight overtimes to be decided. Both teams scored touchdowns in the first two overtime periods, sending the game to the third overtime and the alternating two-point conversions portion.
Neither team scored in the third or fourth OTs. However, both Georgia and Georgia Tech scored in the fifth. Both teams were held scoreless in the sixth and seventh overtime periods, sending the game to an eighth overtime.
That is when Georgia Tech failed on their two-point attempt, but Georgia converted theirs for a 44-42 victory.
Will we see a College Football Playoff Game decided in overtime? In the year of the inaugural 12-team playoff, anything is possible.
