The NFL the team that wins the coin flip gets to choose to be offense or defense. Then, the first team that scores, wins, in a true sudden death overtime.
Contrastingly, in the college overtime system, both teams get the ball at the 25 yard line. The first team to have more points after an equal set of possessions wins. For example, if the Packers kick and make a field goal, and then the Bears score a touchdown, the Bears have won the game.
One can say with all certainty that it is time for the NFL to change its current sudden death overtime system with a college overtime system.
A major issue to consider in sports is fairness. A football game should be a match of which team performs best as an entire football entity.
Unfortunately, the sudden death system is inconsistent with this aim. In fact, they strongly advantage the team that wins the coin flip because they have less of a burden than the team losing the flip.
In order to win when starting as defense, Team A must not only stop Team B from scoring, but must also score itself. If the game goes into a second overtime Team A will have had to stop Team B twice and score itself, while Team A will only have had to stop once and score once.
As a result, the team that wins the coin flip will always have to do less to win — so unfairness is inherent in the system.
The system is also unfair because the losing team may not have been able to demonstrate its strong point in the overtime period.
If a team’s strong point is offense, and the the team loses the coin flip, the team may never have gotten the chance to demonstrate its full skill in overtime.
This means that the current overtime rules are not reflective of the best team, but instead of the luckiest team.
On the other hand, the college system is a sound alternative for the NFL.
This is most apparent because the college system is the best test of an overall football team. Both teams get an equal chance at scoring. Unlike in sudden death overtime, luck is not implicit in the outcome.
Furthermore, the college system allows both the offense and the defense of any given team to take the field. This makes the overtime a more focused reflection of who the better team as a whole is.
Another way of considering the superiority of the college system is by looking to an objective perception of fairness.
The current NFL overtime system is only preferable for the team who wins the coin flip, thus one team is disadvantaged.
A rational observer would prefer that both teams have an equal chance to score rather than a coin flip because it does not disproportionately disadvantage one side over the other.
The NFL is an organization committed to fair and high level competition. This can only happen when overtime rules are also fair.
College overtime is also a very exciting way of playing football. In starting from the 25 yard line with only one set of downs, there is a lot of excitement because a team is close enough to score in most cases.
Thus the game comes down to not only football but also strategy. A coach must decide whether his team will go for a two point conversion and risk being beaten or to play it safe.
In sudden death overtime strategy is less important because a team will just do anything it can to get the ball in the end zone because it need not worry about the other team’s offense.
Football “purists” insist that changing the overtime rules is inconsistent with the nature of the game.
This argument assumes that the nature of the game is something other than a fair competition of two football teams. The operative word in this situation is “fair.”
So long as people ignore fairness in the NFL, sudden death overtime will stand. Only when the professionals mature and look to college rules will the playing ground truly be even.
