Defensive two-point conversion

I was covering college football when this rule came along. Confusing as hell. Some of us were talking about it, and the question was, how did it happen? Bunch of NCAA drones sitting in a conference room. One of them says, "Let's let the defense score on conversions." Noboby could figure out what he was talking about, so they voted it in.
We had another question about that time.
What if a team, trailing by 5 points, scores a touchdown on the last play of the game. It is now winning by 1 point. The only way it can lose is if the defense gets a 2-point conversion. Can the offensive team decline to try the conversion?
There probably are rules, but I stopped keeping track of this nonsense a few years ago.

 

It can't decline to try a conversion, but it can -- as happens occasionally -- line up and take a knee. A conversion can be waived at the end of the game if there would be no effect on the result of the game (as happens, of course, in any overtime game won with a touchdown by the team going second).

I think Iowa did that against Michigan State last week, and I know Georgia did it in the Hobnailed Boot game against Tennessee in 2001.

I'm curious whether there's ever been a two-point defensive conversion in an overtime. The team scoring it would still need a touchdown, of course, but there wouldn't be any need for a conversion afterward.

ETA the Miracle on the Mountain. Because it's never not funny.

 

For our Canadian friends, it definitely is possible. The good old rouge.

 

Blocked PAT. IIRC, Lance Brown (who had a big year for IU as a safety that year) ended up scooping it up and running it in.

UW went to the Rose Bowl that year. IU went 8-3, with the only other two losses to Ohio State & Penn State on the road by a touchdown each. IU had an incredible defense that season.

I also remember being *very* wet that day. Nobody knew what was going on during that play ...

 

A link was posted above, but this one gives a little more context to the wildness of that App-Furman play (time, score, etc.). Sorry it has to include Leather.

 

No, the rationale is that without the defensive conversion, teams try plays (i.e., flat passes to the sideline) with high risk of turnovers, since the only "penalty" for a disastrous turnover in such a situation would be not making the PAT.

I think the NFL (and high schools) should adopt it too, just to add a little risk factor to the offense, and also encourage defenses to play super-aggressive on conversion attempts.

Defensive conversions are pretty rare as it is, it's not like it's made a travesty of the game or something.

 

I don't think the defending team can ever score a point on a conversion attempt in the NFL.

And I repeat, the defensive conversion is the dumbest rule ever.

 

True. The defending team cannot score on a conversion attempt in the NFL.

I like the idea though. I've frequently seen passes intercepted and the guy starts running out of the end zone only to stop because the play's over. I think it'd bring a little more excitement.

 

Why? Why shouldn't the D get points for a pick-6 (er. Pick-2)? They would on any other play.

 

A 100-yard Pick-6, or fumble return, is about as catastrophically as a play can fail. There ought to be a little more of a penalty for it than there would be for an incomplete pass.

 

Independence Bowl between Mississippi State and Texas A&M several years ago (played in the snow). A&M scored first in OT, but MSU blocked the XP and returned it for two. Then MSU scored on its possession and won 43-41. Think it was 2001 or so.

 

Aaah yes. The Miracle on the Mountain. It never gets old. Oddly enough, it almost happened again on Saturday after Furman botched an extra point snap, and ASU returned the ball for two points, but a killjoy zebra saved Bobby Lambchop more embarassment by tossing a flag on the return.