HS football state final ends in tie

Georgia has five classifications and two of its state final games ended in ties on Saturday. One of the ties was in the largest classification (AAAAA), so a lot of fans are upset about it.

Just wondering if any other states allow their football state finals to end in ties.

 

Not many, I don't think. Certainly not Florida.

 

Not in my state. You'd think there'd be some sort of provision to have a straight-up winner, but then you'd think this would have come up by now.

 

Doesn't Georgia have overtime in the regular season?

 

Couple ways to break the tie:

(1) Bare knuckles brawl in the parking lot. Last guy standing wins a championship for the team.

(2) You Got Served.

 

(3) Breakthrough and Conquer, a la American Gladiators.

 

(4) XFL version of the coin flip.

 

OK, the very thought of a dance-off at midfield makes me giggle.

 

Here in Georgia, soccer finals can also end with co-champions.

And yes, there is overtime in the regular season, usually to decide standings in region play.
Another time it is available is when teams from different classifications play each other and the coaches agree before the game to play overtime.

 

AJC has good coverage of it all. Nobody's very happy with the ties, it seems.

http://www.ajc.com/highschool/content/sports/highschool/index.html

 

Yeah, my alma mater (Roswell) was one of the ones involved.
My brother was there, and he told me that every one at the game except him expected there to be overtime played.
When both teams started shaking hands, fans threw stuff onto the field and shouted obscenities. He told me that no one left happy.

 

Texas adopted the NCAA overtime in 1996. Before that, the procedure for determining which team advanced when playoff games ended in ties started with 20-yard line penetrations, then first downs, then total offensive yards and finally a coin flip (I know of no instances where it ever got that far).

Before 1996, 11 state championship games ended in ties. In 10 of those, the coaches agreed beforehand that the teams would be declared co-champions. The only state title ever decided by the tiebreaker was 1932. The last championship game to end in a tie was 1984.

Since 1996, four championship games have been decided in overtime.