Removing Overtime in Regular Season Soccer Games

Author:

Mike Greene-Walsh

School:

Omaha South

NSAA District:

Proposal for:

Activities Manual

Classes Affected:

Class A
Class B

Activities Affected:

Boys Soccer
Girls Soccer

This proposal:

WILL NOT increase costs to the school
WILL NOT increase costs to the NSAA
WILL NOT increase travel for participating schools
WILL NOT decrease a student's or coach's instruction time

Implementation date:

2028-03-01

Sections affected in Activities Manual:

Page
13

Article

Section

Summary:

Regular Season End-of-Regulation Procedure
Regular season contests that are tied at the end of regulation play (80 minutes) shall end as a tie. No overtime periods or penalty-kick tiebreaker shall be played in regular season contests, except as provided below for tournaments and engagements.

Exception — Tournaments and Conference Tournaments. Any contest played as part of a tournament, as defined in the manual, including conference tournaments, that is tied at the end of regulation is at the discretion of the tournament director and may play the full overtime procedure or proceed directly to the penalty-kick tiebreaker.

Wild Card Points for Regular Season Ties. A regular season contest between two Nebraska member schools that end in a tie shall be recorded as a tie. Each team will be awarded wildcard points based on the division played:

Point Scale	1st Div	2nd Div	3rd Div	4th Div
Victory Over--	50	47	44	41
Loss To--	39	36	33	30
Tie Against--	44.5	41.5	38.5	35.5

Win percentage is calculated using the adjusted winning percentage formula: (Wins + 0.5 × Ties) ÷ Total Games Played. Teams playing Class A opponents will be awarded an additional 2 points, as already outlined in the manual.

Postseason Contests. Sub-district, district, district final, and state championship contests are unaffected by this section and shall follow the Overtime Procedure and Penalty Kick Tie-Breaker Procedure.

Rationale:

A tie is a legitimate and well-understood outcome in soccer at nearly every level of the sport outside of Nebraska high school play. The NSAA is one of only 11 NFHS associations requiring a winner for regular season contests. The soccer manual already has a mechanism (the out-of-state tie adjustment) for converting a tied result into fair win percentage. Extending that same formula to in-state competition closes the gap without requiring a new scoring system.

The current rule that “no game involving a Nebraska team may end in a tie” forces every regular season contest into extra periods and a penalty-kick shootout if the score is level. This proposal reconsiders that requirement to avoid weather, travel, and player rest logistics.

Pros:

- Player safety and workload: Reduces additional playing time (up to 20+ minutes of overtime plus a shootout) added onto an already-demanding 80-minute contest, particularly relevant during an eight-week schedule.
- Schedule and travel logistics: Removing mandatory overtime shortens game duration and reduces late-night travel for both teams that may have school-night curfews or commitments.
- Consistency with the sport itself: Ties are a standard, well-understood result in soccer nationally and internationally; this aligns Nebraska's regular season with common practice while preserving tournaments and postseason.
- No new administrative system required: The existing out-of-state tie formula (Wins + 0.5 × Ties) ÷ Total Games Played already solves the "how do we score a tie for wild card purposes" problem, so implementation is a straightforward extension of a rule already in the manual.
- Reduced wear on officials: Fewer overtime periods and shootouts across the regular season reduces the workload and game length officials are contracted for at the standard per-game rate.

Cons:

- Wild card point complexity: Introducing tie-adjusted percentages into in-state scoring changes a system that has, until now, been a simple win/loss point scale.