By Mark Uyl, Asst. Director, MHSAA

Be the Referee is a weekly message from the Michigan High School Athletics Association that is designed to help educate people on the rules in different sports, to help them better understand the art of officiating, and to recruit officials.

Overtime 

There is nothing better for a football fan than a close game and the ultimate is when that close game ends up going into overtime.

The high school overtime rules are quite similar to those used at the college level. In other words, both teams are going to be guaranteed one possession of the ball starting out first down and goal to go from the ten-yard line. A couple of keys differences is, if the defense gets possession of the ball on an interception or on a fumble, the ball is dead and the teams switch offense and defense. In other words, that ball can’t be returned for a defensive score to end the game.

There is also no requirement that the offense at any point after a touchdown be required to go for two. If the game would go seven or eight overtimes, teams can continue to simply kick the one point extra point.