Tie Breaking

There is a unique doubleheader tonight at Class of 1952 Stadium. 

It starts at 5, when the field hockey team takes on Monmouth on Beford Field. It continues at 8 with men's soccer against Fordham on Sherrerd Field, which is on the other side of the facility. That's two games. No admission fee. One stadium. Two fields. 

TigerBlog wanted to start with that. He also wanted to talk a little bit about finishes, specifically those that extend beyond when they were supposed to end. 

The lesson from the football and field hockey games against Harvard this past weekend is fairly obvious. The difference between the teams on the field was essentially non-existent. The impact the games had on the Ivy League races is dramatic. 

Is there a better way to decide who wins such games than the formats in place?

Princeton's 18-16 win over Harvard in football this past Saturday has been dissected enough, with only one more thing left to say: Deciding a football game based on alternating two-point conversions might not be the best way to do so.

TigerBlog remembers when ties were still a thing in football. He was okay with them. Hey, the 1995 Princeton football team won an Ivy League outright championship by kicking a field goal on the final play of the regular season to force a 10-10 tie with Dartmouth.

The reason that overtime came about in the first place was, TB is convinced, to take the pressure off of coaches to have to decide to play for a tie or a win at the end of a game. 

Plus, playing for a tie was always seen as less than courageous somehow, even if a tie was in your best interest. In that Princeton win over Dartmouth, the Tigers had the ball inside the Big Green 1 with four seconds to go, trailing 10-7. A tie or win gives you an outright championship. What do you do? Kick, or try to run it it?

There was also the very famous 1984 Orange Bowl, when Nebraska coach Tom Osborne decided to go for two and the win when an extra point would have given him a tie and the national championship. Instead, the conversion was no good, and Miami won the game 31-30 and the national title.

The problem with football overtime is that there is no good format for it. Football is a rough game, and going too far beyond 60 minutes creates increased chances of injuries. The NFL has shortened its OT, and as a result there have been a handful of ties the last few years. So be it.

Prior to this year, when Princeton and Harvard got through two overtimes still even, they would have alternated possessions starting at the 25 for as long as it took. Now it's just the two-point conversions, which don't seem to work. Ask any neutral person who watched Penn State-Illinois go through nine OTs. 

What's the solution? TB isn't sure there's a great one. Maybe two OTs and then it's a tie if still even? Maybe no OT? If nothing else, go back to the way it was before and get rid of the dueling two-point conversions. 

By contrast, field hockey overtime is mostly perfect. Take four players off the field, open things up significantly and see who scores first. Princeton had played five OT games this season prior to its game at Harvard Saturday, and none of those games had made it past the first 10-minute OT period.

Up in Cambridge Saturday, it was two nationally ranked, Ivy unbeaten teams who played for the inside track to the league title and NCAA bid. They went through regulation tied at 1-1. They went through the first OT. They went through the second OT. Nobody scored.

So on to a penalty shootout it went. TB is not a fan, and not only because Harvard won. As is the case in soccer, TB would love to see the teams keep playing until someone scores. If you know you can't win without scoring, then it changes your mentality.

With the win, Harvard is now 5-0 in the league with games against Cornell and Brown. Princeton is 4-1 with games against Brown and Columbia. To get the auto bid, Princeton needs two wins and two Harvard losses. 

Princeton is still very much in the hunt for an at-large bid. The Tigers are No. 16 in the RPI, with five of their losses to teams in the top 11 in RPI right now, and two of those (No. 3 Maryland, No. 6 Louisville) in overtime. Princeton also has a win over No. 5 Penn State, as well as No. 19 Delaware and No. 20 UConn. That's a very, very strong resume.  

By the way, six of the top seven teams in the RPI are from the Big Ten.

The NCAA selections will be announced on Sunday, Nov. 7, at 10 pm.