Texas High School Football Overtime: How the Tiebreaker Works Under UIL Rules
Short answer
Texas high school football plays overtime under the NCAA tiebreaker (NCAA Rule 3-1-3). Each team gets a possession series starting at the opponent’s 25-yard line. From the second overtime, a touchdown must be followed by a two-point try. From the third overtime on, the game becomes alternating single two-point plays from the three-yard line.
Texas plays NCAA rules as modified by the UIL’s annual list of state exceptions — and none of the exceptions we track touches the overtime procedure itself. The tiebreaker you see on a Friday night is the same one you see on Saturday. If you searched for the “positive points” rule: that is a district standings tiebreaker some districts use for playoff seeding, not a playing rule, and it is covered below.
Which rulebook governs Texas overtime
Unlike the vast majority of states, which play under the NFHS book (where overtime procedures are largely left to each state association), Texas UIL football is played under NCAA rules with a published list of UIL exceptions. The NCAA book has a single, mandatory tiebreaker, and it kicks in automatically:
“The NCAA tiebreaker system will be used when a game is tied after four periods.”
NCAA Football Rule 3-1-3
So a tied UIL game does not end tied — it goes to the tiebreaker. When the fourth quarter ends with the score level, both teams go to their team areas, the officials meet at the 50 to review the procedure, and the captains come back out for a new coin toss.
The overtime coin toss
The overtime toss has its own quirks, and they decide games:
- The visiting captain calls it. The rule directs the referee to toss the coin at midfield, “first designating the field captain of the visiting team to call the coin toss.”
- No deferring. Unlike the opening toss, the rule is blunt: “The winner of the toss may not defer the choice.” The winner must pick one of two options: offense or defense (with the offense starting at the opponent’s 25-yard line), or which end of the field is used for both series of that overtime period.
- Most winners choose defense. Going second means you know exactly what you need — a field goal to win, a touchdown to match.
- The loser gets the leftover option for the first extra period, and gets first choice of the options in the second and every other even-numbered extra period.
What a possession series is
Overtime is built out of possession series, one per team per extra period:
“An extra period shall consist of two possession series with each team putting the ball in play by a snap on or between the hash marks on the designated 25-yard line (unless relocated by penalty); this becomes the opponent’s 25-yard line.”
NCAA Football Rule 3-1-3-d
And each series lasts as long as the offense keeps earning first downs:
“Each team retains the ball during a possession series until it scores or fails to make a first down.”
NCAA Football Rule 3-1-3-e
A few consequences worth knowing:
- There are no kickoffs in overtime. The kickoff rule (NCAA 2-16-6) explicitly excepts extra periods — every overtime possession starts with a snap at the 25 (or the 3, in the third overtime and beyond).
- Field goals are live options. A team can settle for a field goal on its series; ordinary playing rules apply throughout.
- Turnovers don’t automatically end the period’s scoring. The ball stays alive after a change of possession until it is declared dead — a defense that intercepts can return it for a score. But if the original offense gets the ball back after a change of possession, it cannot earn a new first down on that series.
Overtime 1, 2, and 3+: what changes each period
The structure tightens as overtime goes on. This is the part most fans half-remember:
| Period | Where each possession starts | After a touchdown |
|---|---|---|
| 1st overtime | Opponent’s 25-yard line, full possession series | Kick the one-point try or go for two — scoring team’s choice. |
| 2nd overtime | Opponent’s 25-yard line, full possession series | Two-point try required. A kicked one-point try is not illegal, but it will not score. |
| 3rd overtime and beyond | Opponent’s 3-yard line — one play only | Not applicable — each “possession series” is itself a single two-point play. |
The two escalators, in the rulebook’s own words:
“Beginning with the second extra period, teams scoring a touchdown must attempt a two-point try.”
NCAA Football Rule 3-1-3-f
“Beginning with the third extra period, a team’s possession series will be one play for a two-point try from the three-yard line, unless relocated by penalty.”
NCAA Football Rule 3-1-3-e
So a marathon Texas overtime game turns into a two-point shootout: alternating single snaps from the 3, back and forth, until one team converts and the other doesn’t. NCAA Rule 8-3-2 defines the try to include these third-and-later overtime attempts, and the defense can score on them too — a defensive takeaway returned the length of the field on a two-point play is worth two points the other way.
How the game ends
“The team scoring the greater number of points during the regulation and extra periods shall be declared the winner.”
NCAA Football Rule 3-1-3-f
Both teams get their series in each extra period — with one exception. If the defense scores during the first series of a period (say, a pick-six on the opening overtime possession), the game is over immediately. The rule requires an equal number of possession series in each extra period “unless Team B scores other than on the try.” There is no rebuttal series after a defensive score, because the trailing team can never catch up: the team that just scored would be getting the ball next anyway.
If both teams score the same number of points in an extra period — matching field goals, matching touchdowns-plus-conversions, or two empty series — the game moves to the next extra period, and the toss options flip as described above.
Timeouts and penalties in overtime
- Timeouts are rationed. Each team gets one timeout for the first extra period, one for the second, and one timeout from the third extra period until the game ends. And none of it banks: “Timeouts not used during the regulation periods may not be carried over into the extra period(s).” Unused overtime timeouts don’t carry to later overtimes either.
- Penalties after a change of possession are generally declined by rule in extra periods, with carve-outs for flagrant personal fouls, unsportsmanlike conduct, and dead-ball fouls, which are enforced on the succeeding play. A score by a team that fouled during the down is canceled. (NCAA Rule 3-1-3-g.)
- Fouls between periods and between series are enforced at the spot of the next possession series (NCAA Rule 10-1-7).
What Texas changes about overtime: nothing we can find. The UIL’s annual exceptions document (the 2026 UIL Exceptions to NCAA Football Rules, 2026–27 school year) modifies dozens of NCAA rules — game length, clock mechanics, equipment, ejection procedure — but none of the exceptions we track modifies the Rule 3-1-3 tiebreaker procedure. The UIL timing exceptions do modify regulation: NCAA Rule 3-2-1 sets the collegiate game at 60 minutes in four 15-minute quarters, and a UIL exception to that rule shortens the Texas high school game (48 minutes is the familiar figure — check the current document for the exact language). But once regulation ends tied, the overtime you get is the NCAA overtime. UIL revises its exceptions every year and renumbers every item, so verify against the current-year document before relying on any of this in a rules dispute.
“Positive points”: a district-standings tiebreaker, not a playing rule
A lot of searches for “Texas high school overtime rules” are really looking for this, so let’s separate the two cleanly:
- The overtime tiebreaker (everything above) breaks a tied game. It is a playing rule, printed in the NCAA book, and every UIL game uses the same one.
- “Positive points” breaks a tied district standing. When two or more teams finish district play with identical records and a playoff seed or berth is on the line, each district breaks the tie using its own adopted plan — and a point-differential system commonly called “positive points” is one popular method. In broad strokes, these systems compare scoring margin across the tied teams’ games, and they typically cap how much of any one game’s margin counts, to blunt the incentive to run up a score.
The details — whether head-to-head comes first, which games count, what the cap is, whether a coin flip or a Zoom draw settles what math can’t — are set district by district, and they vary. “Positive points” is not in the NCAA rulebook and not in the UIL’s playing-rule exceptions; it lives in each district’s executive committee plan. If a seed depends on it, get your district’s current written tiebreaker plan and the current UIL district materials — do not rely on a general description, including this one.
Sources
- The NCAA football rulebook — the base text of Rules 3-1-3 (extra periods / tiebreaker), 3-2-1 (playing time), 2-16-6 (kickoff definition), 2-24-2 (possession series), and 8-3-2 (try down).
- 2026 UIL Exceptions to NCAA Football Rules, eleven-man (PDF) — the 2026–27 edition, dated May 26, 2026, which modifies NCAA rules for UIL games.
- uiltexas.org/football/manual — the UIL football rules page, which links the current exceptions document.
- Your district’s executive committee tiebreaker plan, for anything involving “positive points” and playoff seeding.
UIL revises its exceptions document annually, and district tiebreaker plans change year to year. Verify anything consequential against the current official rulebook, the current-year UIL exceptions, and your district’s current plan before you act on it — including anything on this page.
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Booth Challenge is an independent product. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the University Interscholastic League (UIL), the Texas Association of Sports Officials (TASO), the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), or the NCAA. Rule references are provided for discussion and study. The official published rulebooks, the current-year UIL exceptions, and your district’s adopted tiebreaker plan are the only authority.