Overtime — Rules, Procedure, and a Walk-Through

What the tie-breaker actually does, and what it looks like on the field when neither team will lose.

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1. The procedure, in brief

Regulation ends tied. Before anyone leaves the field, the referee gathers both captains for a 3-minute intermission and a coin toss. From there:

• Each team gets a series, first-and-goal from the 10-yard line (15 in six-player), snapped from anywhere between the hash marks at the same end of the field, both teams attacking the same goal.
• The line to gain is always the goal line. There's no such thing as a first down in overtime — you either score or you don't.
• A field-goal attempt is legal on any down.
• Each team gets one time-out per overtime period — separate from, and unrelated to, however many they had left at the end of regulation.
• A series ends the instant the offense scores, turns the ball over, or fails on fourth down.
• A defensive touchdown or safety ends the game immediately — the defense doesn't need a second series to "confirm" it. An offensive safety puts 2 points on the board and sends the other team's series to the 10, not the usual free-kick.
• After each period, compare scores. Still tied? Play another period. Nothing about the procedure changes except who gets first choice.

The coin toss and the alternating options

The first overtime toss works like a normal coin toss: winner chooses to go on offense first, on defense first, or which end of the field the ball is put in play at; the loser gets the remaining option (3-2-1).

The loser of the overtime coin toss gets first choice in the second overtime, and first choice alternates from there with no new toss:

Period	Who chooses first	What they typically pick
1st OT	Winner of the coin toss	Offense or defense
2nd OT	Loser of the overtime coin toss	Offense, defense or end of field — a free choice, not tied to what they had in the 1st OT
3rd OT	Alternates back	... and so on, each period, for as long as the game goes

Officials don't re-flip the coin every period — the option holder is set by the one overtime toss: its loser chooses first in the 2nd OT, then it alternates. The referee announces it at the 2-minute intermission between periods so both benches know coming in.

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2. Walk-through: a game that won't end

Here's how a stubborn tie actually plays out on the field, period by period.

Regulation ends 21–21. Home and Visitor are dead even. Whistle, both teams to their sidelines, referee summons both captains to midfield for the overtime coin toss.

Overtime 1

Visitor wins the toss and elects defense first — a common choice, since knowing the number you need to beat is an advantage.

• Home: first-and-goal from the 10. A screen pass goes for 6 — touchdown. Home kicks the extra point. Home 28, Visitor 21.
• Visitor: first-and-goal from the 10. A run up the middle scores. Down two, Visitor goes for two to tie rather than kick to trail by one — the two-point try succeeds. 28–28.

Still tied. Second overtime.

Overtime 2

Because Visitor won the overtime toss, Home gets first choice in OT2 as the toss loser. Home elects to go on offense first this time (Home's coach wants to force Visitor to know the number they need again).

• Home: first-and-goal from the 10. This series stalls — three incompletions and a fourth-down field goal try that's blocked. No points. Visitor's ball, but the series is over; possession changing on a failed field goal doesn't give Visitor a live return in this context — the down is simply over and Visitor's series begins fresh from the 10, same as any other overtime series.
• Visitor: first-and-goal from the 10, needing only a field goal to win outright. A false start backs them up to the 15 — this is where "first-and-goal from the 10" quietly becomes "first-and-goal from wherever accepted penalties put you," since normal foul enforcement still applies inside the overtime series. Visitor's kicker lines up on 4th down and misses the field goal.

Still tied, 28–28, after two overtimes.

Overtime 3

First choice alternates again — Visitor's turn.

• Visitor: offense first. A long completion to the 2, then a fumble at the goal line that Home recovers in its own end zone — a touchback for Home, not a defensive score, since the ball became dead there with Home in possession. Visitor's series ends with nothing.
• Home: first-and-goal from the 10. On 2nd down, Home's back breaks a run to the 1... but is ruled down before the plane. 3rd-and-goal from the 1 — stuffed. 4th-and-goal — Home elects the field goal rather than risk it, and it's good. Home 31, Visitor 28.

Home wins after three overtime periods.

That's the shape of it: nothing about the rules changes between periods 1 and 11 if a game somehow goes that long. Each period is a clean, self-contained pair of series from the 10, and the game simply keeps adding periods — with the choice of offense/defense alternating and the score reset to "who's ahead after both teams have had this period's series" — until one team is ahead when both series are over.

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3. Things that trip up a crew mid-overtime

• Timeouts don't carry over. A team that used all three of its second-half timeouts still gets one full timeout in the first overtime, another fresh one in the second, and so on.
• Fouls between the periods (dead-ball or unsportsmanlike fouls in the intermission) are enforced on the next series under the same succeeding-spot logic as any other dead-ball foul — see the enforcement guide for the general rule; overtime doesn't have a special exception.
• A disqualified player from a fight at the end of regulation or during an overtime intermission is out for the rest of the game, and the penalty is enforced from the succeeding spot — wherever the next overtime series begins (from the 5 if his opponent snaps first, from the 25 if his own team does; Situation J).
• PSK (post-scrimmage kick) enforcement does not apply in overtime. In regulation, a foul by the receiving team during a scrimmage kick that crosses the neutral zone is enforced from the end of the kick and the receivers keep the ball. That treatment is switched off in overtime (10-4-3); the foul is enforced under the ordinary all-but-one principle.
• A defensive safety ends the game, just like a defensive touchdown (8-1). Only a safety scored by the offense keeps the game going, and since B gaining possession ends the series, that takes a new force by B on a loose ball: say A fumbles at B's 3, B1 muffs the grounded ball into his own end zone and B2 falls on it there (2-13-1, 8-5-2b). A is up 2–0 and B then starts its series from the 10 as normal (5-1-3).
• Overtime rules are state-adopted, not universal NFHS mandate. The NFHS publishes RESOLVING TIED GAMES as a model procedure; state associations can adopt it as written, modify it (some states use a shorter yard line, some cap the number of periods and go to a kick-off contest, some allow ties in the regular season), or reject it. Vermont's association rules govern; confirm the current adopted procedure at your pregame conference, and say so out loud to both coaches so nobody is surprised when the coin gets flipped a second or third time.

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4. Quick reference

Starting spot	10-yard line (15 in six-player), anywhere between the hash marks
Line to gain	The goal line, every down
Field goal	Legal on any down
Timeouts	One per team, per overtime period
Series ends on	Score, turnover on downs, or change of possession
Game ends on	Any score that leaves one team ahead once both series are complete, or immediately on a defensive touchdown/safety
Still tied after a period?	Play another; the toss loser chooses first in the 2nd OT, then first choice alternates
PSK enforcement	Does not apply