re: NCAA approves new college football rules, including change to overtime

There's never been anything wrong with a tie.

Football existed 100 years with them.

People were fine with it, pollsters saw it as not a win but not a loss and would drop you maybe one or two places in the polls. It wasn't a big deal.

The only big deal tie is 1966 in the original "Game of the Century" where people accused Notre Dame of playing for a tie at the end because they were #1 in the polls and Michigan State was #2 in the polls and a tie wouldn't hurt Notre Dame.

But Notre Dame caught so much flak from the press that sandbagging at the end of a game to preserve a tie was never going to be a strategy going forward.

For those that don't know the story:

The Spartans were looking for another national championship and everything’s going smoothly. They are 9-0 on the season, ranked No. 2 in the nation and their final game is coming up against No. 1 Notre Dame, who are 8-0. In fact, this game was the first meeting between the Associated Press poll’s 1 and 2 teams since the poll began in 1936.

1:30 left in a 10-10 game and Notre Dame has the ball at their own 30.

Notre Dame didn’t even TRY for the win. They sat on the ball, calling run play after run play, while Michigan State called timeout after timeout, taunting the Irish during the final 90 seconds.

In a game that saw five fumbles, four interceptions, and 20 rushes that were for either no gain or went backwards for negative yardage. And while you’d expect it from the teams, you wouldn’t expect it from the coach. But Parseghian didn’t think much of his offense and didn’t want to give MSU a chance to steal a win out of a tie. In the end, Michigan State and Notre Dame split the national title in 1966.