Here’s one way to make high school football even better
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Bob Wolfrum has never cared for the PIAA’s football overtime procedure, which gives each team a set of downs at the 10-yard line to decide the game.
“I don’t like it even a little bit,” said Wyomissing’s long-time coach. “Ten yards . . . it’s not the same game.”
Wolfrum and others at this level would prefer an overtime period that more closely resembles the one used by the NCAA, where each team takes possession at the 25 and needs to move the ball more than just a few yards in order to score.
It takes a long play, or a couple of first downs, to reach the end zone. A field goal from that distance is far from automatic, even at the college level.
Under the PIAA’s current tiebreaking rules the flip of a coin determines more outcomes than well-rounded football skills.
With the 10-yard rule, the team that wins the coin flip following the end of regulation will always choose to go on defense first and thus gains a huge advantage.
The team that takes the ball first is put in a difficult position if it doesn’t score a TD on its first three plays. If it goes for it on fourth down and doesn’t make it, it’s pretty much dead in the water; the other team will be able to kick a short field goal for the win.
“They obviously have the edge,” Wilson’s Doug Dahms said of the team that wins the coin flip and goes on offense second, “because they know what they have to do.”
Coaches who go on offense first can be faced with the toughest decision they’ll encounter in the entire game: Go for the touchdown on fourth down or kick the field goal, knowing those three points might not be enough to win?
“It becomes a question of: ‘How confident are you in your defense?’ ” Dahms said. “There’s just not any room for error when you’re starting on the 10-yard-line. You can’t give ’em a first down or it’s a touchdown.”
Wolfrum and Dahms have each suffered difficult overtime losses in the postseason.
Wyomissing became the first District 3 team to play three overtimes when it faced Littlestown in the 1989 Class 1A championship game. The Spartans lost 25-19.
(Cumberland Valley went seven overtimes to beat Central Dauphin in the 2015 District 3 Class 4A championship game.)
No one’s taken a tougher OT punch in the gut than Wilson, which lost a 2008 state semifinal to Bethel Park 38-35 in triple-overtime. The Bulldogs failed to convert on a fake field goal to start the third OT; Bethel Park ended it on a chip shot 25-yard field goal a few plays later.
Wyomissing had an equally painful experience in the District 3 Class 4 championship against Lampeter-Strasburg last season. The Spartans saw their field goal attempt blocked on the opening possession of overtime. The Pioneers sent their All-State placekicker, Peter Fiorelli, out on the next play to end it, winning 30-27.
Those painful results didn’t change the way Wolfrum or Dahms think about the overtime rules; neither liked them to begin with.
A tiebreaking procedure that better reflects the normal flow of the game would produce better results. A single set of downs at the 10 favors teams that play power football and de-emphasizes other elements of the game.
By starting at the 25 offenses would be able to use their full complement of resources and defenses would be more fully tested.
“It would bring more of the passing game into it,” said Schuylkill Valley coach Bruce Harbach, who won a pair of state titles at Lancaster Catholic. “You get down to the 10-yard line, the field’s constricted and you don’t have a lot of room to throw the ball. If it starts at the 25, it’s more fair.”
Anyone who watched Texas play Arizona State in the Peach Bowl knows that was the most exciting game of the recent College Football Playoffs. The Longhorns trailed in the first overtime but scored TDs on its final two possessions to win 39-31 in double-overtime.
The PIAA saw a pair of its championship games in December go to overtime; neither came close to that kind of excitement.
Patrick Gebhart, the Associate Executive Director of the PIAA who works closely with officials, said there has been little discussion about a move away from the current overtime rules. The PIAA almost always follows national procedures outlined by the National Federation of High School.
There has been some movement on that front across the nation.
Ohio switched to a college-style overtime format in 2023, with teams beginning OT at the 20-yard line. In Georgia they start at the 15, with mandatory two-point conversion attempts beginning in the second overtime. Texas high schools follow college rules, not the NFHS.
The PIAA could take a similar unilateral approach; it does need to be in complete lockstep with the NFHS. Thinking outside the box on this one would improve the game.
“If you’ve gotta go 25 yards, the better team’s probably going to win,” Dahms said. “If you only go 10 yards, they could have a trick play . . . you could have one missed tackle, one little slip-up and it’s over.”