Knock-out contests (including professional competition) In
association football knockout competitions or competition stages, teams play an extra 30 minutes, called
extra time, when the deciding leg (or replay of a tie) has not produced a winner by the end of normal or full-time. (This is not to be confused with
additional time, which is the part of normal time added to compensate for in-game stoppages.) Extra time follows a short break (traditionally five minutes) where players remain on or around the field of play and comprises two 15-minute periods, with teams changing ends in between. Although the
Laws of the Game state that extra time is one of the approved methods to decide a winner, competitions are not bound to adopt extra time, and each competition is free to choose any method designated in the Laws of the Game to decide a winner. In a one-off tie or deciding replay, level scores nearly always go to extra time but this only applies to the
FIFA competitions and the first-tier
continental national team competitions. In games played over two legs at the continental levels (such as the three–tier
men's continental club competitions and the
women's continental club competitions), domestic levels (such as ,
DFB-Pokal and the
Coppa Italia semi-finals or
Bundesliga relegation and promotion play-offs) or even at lower levels (such as the
English Football League play-offs), teams only play extra time in the second leg where the aggregate score – then normally followed by an
away goals rule – has not produced a winner first. However starting the 2021–22 season,
UEFA decided to abolish it for all
club competitions and changed with the penalty shootout if the aggregate is still tied after the extra time. Ties in the
FA Cup used to be decided by as many replays as necessary until one produces a winner within normal time rather than have any extra time or shootouts though, nowadays, replays are limited to just one with the game going to extra time if teams are still level. Equally,
CONMEBOL has historically never used extra time in any of the competitions it directly organizes except only in the final match of a competition, such as the
Copa Libertadores and
Copa Sudamericana. The score in games or ties resorting to extra time are often recorded with the abbreviation a.e.t. (after extra time) usually accompanying the earlier score after regulation time. The two-legged format for the club competition finals with this rule is still used in
CONCACAF club competitions where an away goals rule still takes place. Ties that are still without a winner after extra time are usually broken by kicks from the penalty spot, commonly called a
penalty shoot-out. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, many international matches tried to reduce this by employing the
golden goal (also called "
sudden death") or silver goal rules (the game ending if a team has the lead after the first 15-minute period of extra time), but competitions have not retained these. The abbreviation "a.s.d.e.t." refers to a result "after sudden death extra time".
U.S. collegiate rules Up until 2021, under
NCAA college soccer rules, all games that remained tied after 90 minutes had an overtime period. A sudden-death
golden goal rule was applied, with the game ending as soon as an overtime goal was scored. If neither team scored in the two 10-minute halves, the game ended in a draw unless it was a conference or national championship tournament game. A playoff game tied after two overtime periods then moved to a
penalty kick shoot-out with the winner determined by the teams alternating kicks from the penalty mark. Since the 2022
men's and
women's season, the golden goal has been abolished during the regular season. Since 2024, games that ended in a draw during a conference or national tournament game involve two 10-minute periods, with golden goal. A playoff game tied after two overtime periods still moves to a
penalty kick shoot-out with the winner determined by the teams alternating kicks from the penalty mark.
U.S. high school rules High school rules vary depending on the state and conference, but most will have a sudden-death overtime procedure wherein the game ends upon scoring a golden goal, although in some instances the overtime will go until completion with the team in the lead after time expires (i.e., silver goal rules) declared the winner. The overtime period length may vary, but it is commonly 10 minutes long. Depending on the state, if the game is still tied at the end of the first overtime: • As many additional overtime periods – golden or silver goal rules – may be played as needed to determine a winner. • After one or more overtime periods result in the score remaining tied, a
shootout procedure may be played. In a shootout, the coaches or team captains select five players to shoot penalty kicks with teams alternating kicks from the penalty mark in an attempt to put the ball into the net. The procedure continues until each team has taken five kicks, or, if one side has scored more successful kicks, the other could not possibly reach with its remaining kicks. • If both teams make the same number of successful penalty kicks after all eligible players have taken their first kick, the procedure repeats; the teams are not required to follow the same order of kickers as was used for the first kick, and may replace one or more of the original kickers. The procedure repeats until one side has successfully converted more penalty kicks in a set of five attempts. • Depending on the state or conference, the game may go directly to a penalty shootout rather than playing overtime. • Under rules published by the
NFHS, a section called "Sample Tie-Breaking Procedure" is included, but state associations are not required to adopt those procedures. ==American and Canadian football==
National Football League In the
National Football League (NFL), sudden death overtime periods are played during regular-season and postseason games, but not during
preseason games from to and since . Regular-season games end in a tie if the score is still tied after one 10-minute overtime period, while in postseason games, 15-minute overtime periods are played until a winner is determined.
Procedure At the start of overtime, the
team captains and
officials hold another coin toss. Similarly to the coin toss at the beginning of the game, the team that wins the coin toss chooses whether they want to receive or kick the opening kickoff, while the other team chooses which end of the field they will defend. Gameplay is conducted similarly to the regulation periods (in contrast with the "Kansas system" used in college football rules), and each team is given two
timeouts.
Instant replay reviews must be initiated by the replay official, i.e. there are no challenges. The winner is then decided as follows: • Each team is guaranteed one possession in overtime regardless of the result of the opening drive. In the unlikely event time expires while the initial receiving team still possess the ball without scoring, the game ends in a tie; if the initial receiving team scores as time expires, then that team wins. • The team with the most points after each team has had an opportunity to possess the ball wins the game. • If the team that receives the opening kickoff does not score on its opening drive, or if the score is still tied after each team has had an opportunity to possess the ball, the next team to score wins the game. • Any score by the defense (e.g.,
safety, or a
fumble or an
interception that is returned for a touchdown) results in a win for that team. • The game ends in a tie if the score is still tied at the end of the 10-minute overtime period. Because playoff games cannot end in a tie, the overtime procedure is modified for these games: • Each team gets three timeouts instead of two. • Each team is guaranteed one possession regardless of the result of the opening drive. • Overtime periods are 15 minutes instead of 10. • If the score is still tied at the end of the first overtime period, or the if the second team to possess the ball has not completed their initial possession at that point, additional 15-minute overtime periods are played until a winner is determined. • If more than one overtime period is needed: • There is a two-minute intermission between overtime periods. • Second and fourth-quarter timing rules apply during the second overtime period. • The rules stipulate that there is no halftime break after the second overtime period and provide for another coin toss at the end of every fourth overtime period; however, no playoff game to date has extended into a third overtime.
History The
National Football League (NFL) introduced sudden-death overtime for any divisional tiebreak games beginning in
1940, and for championship games beginning in
1946. The first postseason game to be played under these rules was the
1958 NFL Championship Game between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants (the "Greatest Game Ever Played"). In 1974, the NFL adopted sudden-death overtime for regular season and preseason games: if the score is tied after regulation time, one additional period is played. Until the 2016 season, the period was 15 minutes in all games: in , it was changed to 10 minutes in regular season games, while overtime in preseason games was abolished in , and it remains 15 minutes for playoff games. In March 2010, NFL owners voted to amend overtime rules for postseason games; the changes were extended to the regular season in 2012. Since no 2010 postseason game went into overtime, the first overtime game played after the implementation of this rule came in the wild-card round in
2011. Incidentally, this was also the shortest overtime in NFL history until 2019;
Pittsburgh Steelers kicker
Shaun Suisham kicked off and the ball went out of the back of the end zone, resulting in a touchback and no time off the clock.
Tim Tebow, then with the
Denver Broncos, threw an 80-yard touchdown pass on the first play to
Demaryius Thomas to give the Broncos the win in only 11 seconds. The first time the "first-possession field goal" rule was enforced occurred on 9 September 2012, the first week of the season, in a game between the
Minnesota Vikings and
Jacksonville Jaguars. Minnesota's
Blair Walsh kicked a 38-yard field goal on the Vikings' first drive. When Jacksonville regained possession, they failed to gain a first down, losing possession and the game on a failed fourth-down conversion. The first overtime in which both teams scored occurred on 18 November 2012, in a game between the
Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars; the Texans won 43–37. The first overtime game that ended in a tie after both teams scored in overtime occurred on 24 November 2013, when the Minnesota Vikings and
Green Bay Packers played to a 26–26 tie. On 5 February 2017, a
Super Bowl went into overtime for the first time, with the
New England Patriots defeating the
Atlanta Falcons, 34–28; the Patriots scored a touchdown on their initial possession, so the Falcons never received the ball in overtime. On 29 December 2019, in their season finale against the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the
Falcons finished the game with a pick-six seven seconds into overtime by
Deion Jones, breaking the record for the shortest overtime in NFL history. A rule change gives both teams one possession to start the first overtime in playoff games, no matter whether or not a touchdown is scored first; the changes were extended to the regular season in . The first game to go into overtime under this rule was
Super Bowl LVIII following the season. However, that game was not impacted by the rule change; the
San Francisco 49ers kicked a field goal on their first possession and the
Kansas City Chiefs, who ultimately scored a
walk-off touchdown on their possession, would have gotten a possession under the pre-2022 rule as well.
Other professional football leagues The
Arena Football League and
NFL Europe used a variant in which each team is guaranteed one possession. Whoever is leading after one possession won the game; if the teams remain tied after one possession, the game went to sudden death. This procedure was used by the
second United Football League in its inaugural 2009 season. This included both games of all semifinals series. All overtime periods thereafter were true sudden death periods. The short-lived
World Football League, for its inaugural 1974 season (the same year the NFL established sudden death in the regular season), used a fifteen-minute quarter of extra time, divided into two halves. It was not sudden death. The
New York Pro Football League, a 1910s-era league that eventually had several of its teams join the NFL, used the
replay to settle ties in its playoff tournament. The replay was used in the 1919 tournament to decide the championship between the
Buffalo Prospects and the
Rochester Jeffersons. The teams had played to a tie on Thanksgiving; Buffalo won the replay 20–0 to win the championship. The
current United Football League settles ties this way: teams will try three rounds of 2-point conversions from the 5-yard line. Coin toss is called by the visiting team; the winner of the toss can choose to possess the ball first or defend. Whoever scores the most points after three rounds wins it; otherwise, teams play sudden-death rounds until one team scores. One timeout can be called per overtime round.
College, high school, and Canadian football In
college (since the
1996 season) and
high school football, as well as the
Canadian Football League (since the 2000 season) and the short-lived
Alliance of American Football, an
overtime procedure is used to determine the winner. This method is sometimes referred to as a "Kansas Playoff", or "Kansas Plan" because of its origins for
high school football in that state. A brief summary of the rules: • A coin toss determines which side attempts to score first, and at which end zone the scores are attempted. • Each team in turn receives one possession, starting with
first-and-10 from a fixed point on the opponent's side of the field: • Under NCAA rules, the first possession of overtime begins at the opponent's 25-yard line. When overtime was introduced, all possessions for each team started at that point, but the procedure for subsequent overtimes has changed twice since 2019. • In 2019 and 2020, the first four possessions for each team (if necessary) started at the opponent's 25. All subsequent possessions were two-point conversion attempts taken from the 3-yard line, the standard starting point for that play under NCAA rules, and were scored as conversions. • Since 2021, the first two possessions for each team start at the opponent's 25. All subsequent possessions are two-point conversion attempts. • Under standard high school football rules, the possession begins at the 10-yard line, and all plays are goal-to-go. However, the high school rulebook only recommends the overtime procedure and allows state associations to use their own; the 15-, 20-, and 25-yard lines are variously used. The AAF also used the 10-yard line as its starting point. • In the CFL, where a
single point can be scored on a punt, the possession begins at the 35-yard line. • The
play clock runs as normal. There is no game clock, and all play is otherwise
untimed. • A team's possession ends when it (or the defense) scores, misses a field goal, or turns over the ball (either on downs or by the defense otherwise gaining possession). • In high school, college and the CFL, a
field goal can be kicked at any time. Thus, if the first team fails to score, the opponent, already usually in
field goal range, can end the game by kicking one (in the CFL, as previously noted, one can do the same with a single). In the AAF, no field goals were allowed at any time during the playoff. • As usual, a
touchdown by the offense is followed by a try for one or two points. In
NCAA football, since 2021, teams must attempt a
two-point conversion after a touchdown in double overtime; all overtime procedures thereafter consist of two-point conversion attempts and are scored as such. Since 2010, CFL teams must also attempt the two-point conversion after any touchdown in overtime. The AAF required two-point conversions after any touchdown. • In
college football, the defense may score a touchdown on a play on which it gains possession by turnover; such a play will satisfy the condition of each team having a possession and will therefore end the game. In
high school football, the defense is generally not allowed to score if it gains possession, although the
Oregon School Activities Association adopted the college rule experimentally in 2005, and the two main high school governing bodies in Texas, the
University Interscholastic League and
Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, use NCAA football rules (as did Massachusetts through the 2018 season, after which it adopted standard high school rules). If scoring is not allowed or the turnover play does not end with a score, regardless of the eventual position of the ball at the end of the play, the team assumes offense and will begin their procedure from the specified position on the field. • Each team receives one charged time-out per offensive or defensive series (except in the CFL, and as of 2025, NCAA football limits teams to one timeout to use beginning with triple overtime until the game is concluded). • If the score remains tied at the end of the first overtime period, the procedure is repeated. The team with the second possession in one overtime will have the first possession in the next overtime. • In the CFL, there is a limit of two overtime procedures in regular-season games, and if the scores are still level, the game is a tie, but in playoff games, overtime periods are continued until a winner is determined. The AAF did the same, except that regular-season games ended after only one overtime procedure, regardless of the score. (The AAF folded before it ever played any playoff games.) • In American college and high school football, the overtime periods are continued until a winner is determined. • All points scored in overtime count as if they were scored in regulation. (This is in contrast to the analogous
penalty shootout used in other sports, where shootout points are counted separately and only one point is awarded to the winner; however, this procedure is like
extra innings in baseball.)
Record and notable overtime games On two occasions, just two plays were required to determine an overtime winner in an NCAA football game: on 26 September 2002, when
Louisville defeated
Florida State 26–20 and on 27 September 2003, when
Georgia Tech defeated
Vanderbilt 24–17. It is possible for a college game to end after a single play in overtime if the team on defense secures a turnover and returns it for a touchdown: on 9 September 2005,
Ohio defeated
Pittsburgh 16–10 on an 85-yard interception return by
Dion Byrum on the third play of overtime. It is also possible for the defense to get a safety on the first play of overtime (which would also end the game), but this would require the offense to lose 75 yards on the play, which is extremely unlikely (such a scenario is attested in regular play from scrimmage in college football but never in an overtime period). As of the beginning of the 2024 season, the
Tennessee Volunteers have competed in the most overtime college football games, going 15–8 across the 23 games. The college game with the most overtime periods was on 23 October 2021, when
Illinois defeated Penn State, 20–18, in nine overtime periods. Prior to that, five games had been decided in seven overtime periods:
Arkansas vs. Ole Miss in 2001,
Arkansas vs. Kentucky in 2003,
North Texas vs. FIU in 2006,
Western Michigan vs. Buffalo in 2017, and
LSU vs. Texas A&M in 2018, the latter of which was the impetus for the 2019 rule change which mandated two-point conversion attempts after a set number of overtime periods. In 2024, Georgia defeated Georgia Tech 44–42 in eight overtime periods, the second-longest NCAA game up to that point. The most overtimes required to decide a
bowl game in
Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) history is six, which occurred in the
2024 GameAbove Sports Bowl.
Overtime formats The Kansas System was first implemented in 1971. The original Kansas System had each team start on the 10-yard line. Throughout the state that first year, 70 games went into overtime with one game requiring five overtime periods to determine a winner. After the system was reviewed positively by the majority of state's coaches and administrators,
Kansas State High School Activities Association leadership presented the system to the National Federation of State High School Associations, who approved giving state associations the option of using the overtime system for two years. Two years later the overtime system became a permanent option for state associations use. Another type of overtime system was once used by the
California Interscholastic Federation. Known as the "California tiebreaker", it was used in high school football from 1968 through the 1970s and 1980s. The California tiebreaker starts with the ball placed at the 50-yard line, and the teams run four plays each (a coin toss decides who gets to go first), alternating possession at the spot of the ball after every play. If no one manages to score (field goals are not allowed), then the team that is in its opponents' territory at the conclusion of the eight plays is awarded one point and declared the winner. When the California tiebreaker was finally phased out, it was replaced by the Kansas tiebreaker. The
Louisiana High School Athletic Association did not adopt the Kansas tiebreaker for its playoffs until 1977, as did Texas per the
University Interscholastic League and
Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools through 1995. Prior to this, for Louisiana, if a game ended tied, the team with the most first downs was declared the winner; if that was tied, the next criterion was penetrations inside the opponents' 20-yard line. On at least two occasions, both of those criteria were even following a drawn match, forcing a
replay. As for Texas, tiebreakers were as follows: first, most penetrations on or inside opponents' 20; second, first downs; third, total yardage; and a coin toss if all of those failed. ==Basketball==