College Football Overtime A Gimmick?

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Kentucky’s loss to Florida in triple overtime last Saturday was heartbreaking, obviously. But, if social media is an indication, it also showed that not a lot of people understand the rules of overtime in college football. There was a time college football didn’t have an overtime period, creating the possibility that a game could end in a tie. But today’s rules allow overtime, although the game being played doesn’t really look like football. John Clay writes:

"“You know, football, the game in which there are kickoffs and punts and kick coverage and field position and a chance for the defense to actually do something that would decide the outcome.You know, the game of football that is played on a 100-yard field and is timed.College football’s overtime is a truncated version of the actual sport, one that is more gimmick than game.”"

Demarco Robinson was probably on his way out. He had been suspended indefinitely and missed the last two games of the 2013 season. But in January meeting with Mark Stoops and Mitch Barnhart, Robinson was given a reprieve and a chance to turn things around, which he has. Kyle Tucker writes:

"“‘He’s really emerged as a good leader,’ Stoops said. ‘If you’d asked him that a semester ago, he was down on himself and maybe not doing things perfectly, but he’s really turned a corner. Even if he’s not getting the ball, he’s working extremely hard, he’s practicing hard, has a great attitude. I’ve been very pleased with him.’If he sees a young teammate veering, Robinson is quick to correct. Because of where he’s been — and where he is now — most are willing to listen.‘I’ve got a good testimony, a lot of stories to tell,’ he said. ‘To tell people what to do, what not to do, how to go about doing what you’re going to do. So, yeah, I’ve got a lot to tell young people.’”"

Earlier this week, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports wrote a scathing column in which he criticized Mike Krzyzewski’s involvement with USA Basketball and the advantage it gives the Duke men’s basketball coach in recruiting. On Wednesday, Syracuse men’s coach Jim Boeheim, an assistant of Krzyzewski’s with USA Basketball, shot back saying that Wojnarowski’s piece was off-base and claimed that John Calipari had complained about Krzyzewski, as well. Steve Jones writes:

"“Boeheim said Calipari has taken issue with Krzyzewski’s access to recruits while working with the U.S. team and that Calipari had complained both to Boeheim and USA Basketball about it. Boeheim also noted, according to Syracuse.com, that Calipari had signed top recruit Karl Towns after coaching him on the Dominican National Team.‘It’s a concern he has raised before,’ Boeheim said. ‘That particular case he has mentioned. He’s said he thinks its an advantage. He got the No. 1 recruit in the country. It’s a little bit disingenuous of him. I like John. We get along fine. He feels Mike is getting an advantage. You could make that argument. But Duke isn’t getting any better players than they ever have.’”"

The New York City-area is one ripe with basketball talent, something of which John Calipari is full aware. This week, he’s focusing his recruiting efforts there, meeting with some of the best players in the Class of 2015 and 2016. Adam Zagoria writes:

"“So it should come as no surprise that after meeting Wednesday night with 2015 forward Carlton Bragg, the Wildcats coach will spend Thursday meeting with three of the top players in the New York/New Jersey area in 2015 Our Savior New American forward Cheick Diallo, 2016 Gill St. Bernard’s guard Tyus Battle and 2015 Roselle (N.J.) Catholic point guard Isaiah Briscoe.”"

Florida International University hosted the “RAID Games” last weekend. The games are similar to a CrossFit competition. But instead of holding the event outside, FIU’s basketball gym was used. Matt Norlander writes:

"“Florida International was host something called “RAID Games” over the weekend, and with all that obnoxious positive energy and cult-like gusto for neo-hardcore workouts, the people and machines brought in for the contest led to noticeable destruction of the basketball/volleyball playing surface.This despite the fact the court was mostly covered in what was hoped to be protective padding. If only they’d done this on a real beach.The dents, scrapes and scratches to the floor will require a few weeks’ time worth of repair/replacement, per the school.”"