Ole Miss coach David Cutcliffe went to a convention of his fellow college football coaches this offseason believing he could spark a debate about the merits - or lack thereof - of college football's method of breaking ties.
It's not surprising that Cutcliffe had the issue of overtime on top of his agenda. After all, he had to live through a seven-overtime nightmare that made Groundhog Day look like heaven. And, yeah, the Rebels lost that famous game to Arkansas before losing a couple more.
But Cutcliffe says that experience would have altered his overtime outlook no matter the result. After coaching what was essentially a glorified version of recess football, he came to the following conclusion: The NFL's sudden-death overtime is superior.
"After that game, I had a feeling that I like the pro (overtime)," Cutcliffe said. "More of the game is involved."
When a college game ends in a tie, the ball goes on the opponent's 25-yard line. Each team gets the ball until it loses possession or scores. The game is over when one team outscores the other in a given overtime period.
When an NFL game ends in a tie, they flip a coin. One team kicks off, one receives, and they play football. First team to put points on the board of any kind - touchdown run, interception return, field goal, safety - wins the game. In the regular season, if it's still tied after 15 minutes, they do what you should do after 75 minutes of football: declare it a draw.
Cutcliffe was stunned when none of his colleagues showed interest in bringing the issue up for discussion, because he felt that Arkansas game exposed the many, many flaws in the college OT system.
"(Sudden death) involves kickoffs and punts and all facets of the game," Cutcliffe said. "You put a football on the 25-yard line, and it's changing the game, so to speak."
This all struck me as interesting because, in 1998, I wrote a column outlining all the reasons why I've hated college football's overtime system from the beginning. To make my case, I used Tennessee's landmark overtime win over Florida, the one in which Cutcliffe served as offensive coordinator.
Vol fans ripped me but good for daring to blaspheme the win, but they missed the point entirely. That game's fatal flaw was not its victor, but the process that determined the winner.
It turns the final minutes of an otherwise dramatic game into a boring inevitability, as both coaches filibuster into OT.
As Cutcliffe points out, it takes away football's most fundamental concepts. The essential goal of football is to earn territory, not have it handed to you.
And, as more games go past the one or two OTs, we are beginning to learn it is a lousy way to ultimately break a tie.
"To me," Cutcliffe said of the NFL system, "it's more real football and more of your team is involved and I like that part of it."
I can hear what you are saying, that there is some kind of overwhelming advantage given to the first offensive team in sudden death, or that it's not fair if one team never touches the ball on offense.
That's what Memphis coach Tommy West told me in explaining his embrace of college overtime, and it's one that many fans, media and coaches espouse.
"I don't like sudden death because there is too much emphasis on who wins the toss," West said.
Everyone believes this, it seems, and there are only two problems with it.
No. 1, it is wrong in fact.
No. 2, it is wrong in theory.
When I talked to the folks at the NFL in 1998, they confirmed that statistics over the years show that neither the receiving team nor the kickoff team receives an advantage. The receiving team, on average, wins no more often than the team that kicks off.
In terms of theory, I've never understood the fascination with winning the toss in sudden-death. Why not kick off, pin the other team deep in its territory, force a punt and then win the game with a short field-goal drive?
Guess that just sounds too much like good old-fashioned football.
Instead, we get college football's gimmick.
Here's hoping for an eight OT game this season.
Maybe then, Cutcliffe will find more converts.
Contact staff reporter Zack McMillin at 529-2564; E-mail: mcmillin@gomemphis.com
