October 23, 2021: Overtime has been used to settle college football games that ended in a tie since the 1996 season. The rules have been tweaked to keep things from going to too many overtime periods. But on this day, overtime had to be done as many times as Ferris Bueller skipped school in his senior year of high school: Nine times.
Pennsylvania State University were hosting the University of Illinois at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania. Despite rain coming down, a crowd of 105,001 came out to see the game. Penn State were at home, and came into the game 5-1, ranked Number 7 in the nation. They had, however, lost their last game, but that was away to Iowa, then ranked Number 3, so while it hurt their Big Ten Conference hopes, it wasn't an especially embarrassing loss. In contrast, Illinois came in just 2-5. So Penn State were installed as 24 1/2-point favorites.
Penn State led 7-0 after the 1st quarter, and 10-7 at the half. There was no scoring in the 3rd quarter. James McCourt kicked a 37-yard field goal with 11:49 to play, allowing Illinois to tie the game. Neither team could do anything the rest of the way, and regulation ended 10-10.
Under the pre-1996 system, the Fighting Illini would have taken the tie back to Champaign, Illinois, and been pleased with it. Other than the fact that the Nittany Lions couldn't cover any of the big spread, so far, there was nothing especially noteworthy about this game.
As of the start of the season in question, the rules for college football overtime were as follows:
* A coin toss determines which side attempts to score first, and at which end zone the scores are attempted.
* Each team in turn receives one possession, starting with 1st & 10 from a fixed point on the opponent's side of the field:
** Under NCAA rules, the 1st possession of overtime begins at the opponent's 25-yard line. When overtime was introduced, all possessions for each team started at that point, but the procedure for subsequent overtimes has changed twice since 2019:
*** In 2019 and 2020, the 1st 4 possessions for each team (if necessary) started at the opponent's 25. All subsequent possessions were 2-point conversion attempts, taken from the 3-yard line, the standard starting point for that play under NCAA rules, and were scored as conversions.
*** Since 2021, the first two possessions for each team start at the opponent's 25. All subsequent possessions are two-point conversion attempts.
In this game, each team kicked a field goal in the 1st overtime. 13-13. Each team kicked a field goal in the 2nd overtime. 16-16. Neither team scored in the 3rd overtime. Or the 4th. Or the 5th. Or the 6th. Or the 7th.
Finally, in the 8th overtime, Illini quarterback Brandon Peters threw a pass to Isaiah Williams, who got into the end zone, to make it 18-16 Illinois. But Noah Cain scored for the Nittany Lions, and the game went to a 9th overtime. Sean Clifford's pass to Parker Washington fell incomplete. With this opening, Peters passed to Casey Washington, and he scored. Illinois 20, Penn State 18. The game lasted 4 hours and 11 minutes, when it should have taken about an hour less.
This was Penn State's 2nd straight loss, and it really began a tailspin for them: They ended up losing 5 of their last 7 regular-season games. (Of course, 1 of the wins was against Rutgers.) They still ended up getting invited to the Outback Bowl in Tampa, where they lost to Arkansas, 24-10, finishing 7-6. Illinois finished 5-7, and were not invited to a bowl game.
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October 23, 2021 was a Saturday. Among the other college football games played that day was not one played by Number 1-ranked Georgia, or one by Number 9 Iowa, as they both had the week off. But these notable games were played:
* Number 2 Cincinnati beat Navy, 27-20 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.
* Number 3 Oklahoma beat Kansas, 35-23 at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas.
* Number 4 Alabama beat Tennessee, 52-24 at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
* Number 5 Ohio State beat Indiana, 54-7 at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana.
* Number 6 Michigan beat Northwestern, 33-7 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.
* Number 8 Oklahoma State were upset by Iowa State, 24-21 at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames, Iowa.
* Number 10 Oregon beat UCLA, 34-31 at the Rose Bowl in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California.
* In a rivalry game, Number 13 Notre Dame beat USC, 31-16 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.
* Number 16 Wake Forest beat Army, 70-56 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York. Yes, that's a football game, with a basketball score. And they didn't even go to one overtime.
* Number 18 North Carolina State were upset by the University of Miami, 31-30 at Hard Rock Stadium in the Miami suburb of Miami Gardens, Florida.
* In an unusual occurrence, all 3 service academies played ranked teams, and all lost, as Air Force fell to Number 22 San Diego State at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
* Number 25 Purdue were upset by Wisconsin, 30-13 at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana.
In baseball, the National League Pennant was decided that day, as the Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-2 at Truist Park in the Atlanta suburb of Cumberland, Georgia. This won Game 6 of the NL Championship Series. The day before, the Houston Astros beat the Boston Red Sox in Game 6 to win the American League Pennant. The Braves went on to win the World Series, beating the Astros in 6 games.
There were 8 games played in the NBA that day:
* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Toronto Raptors, 103-95 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Atlanta Braves, 101-95 at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.
* The Indiana Pacers beat the Miami Heat, 102-91 in overtime at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
* The Chicago Bulls beat the Detroit Pistons, 97-82 at the United Center in Chicago.
* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 96-89 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the San Antonio Spurs, 121-111 at the AT&T Center (now the Frost Bank Center) in San Antonio.
* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 120-114 at the Staples Center (soon renamed the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles. Paul George scored 41 in defeat for the Clippers.
* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Phoenix Suns, 134-105 at the Moda Center in Portland.
And there were 13 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat the Ottawa Senators, 3-2 at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa.
* The New York Islanders beat the Arizona Coyotes, 3-0 at the Gila River Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.
* The New Jersey Devils beat the Buffalo Sabres, 2-1 at the Prudential Center in Newark. Pavel Zacha scored the winning goal with 1:51 left in overtime.
* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-1 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
* The Florida Panthers beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-2 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.
* The Calgary Flames beat the Washington Capitals, 4-3 at the Capital One Arena in Washington. Elias Lindholm scored the game-winner with 2:14 left in overtime.
* The Colorado Avalanche beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-3 in a shootout at the Amalie Arena (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.
* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 7-1 at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.
* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 5-1 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.
* The Minnesota Wild beat the Anaheim Ducks, 4-3 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. Ryan Hartman scored the winning goal with 13 seconds left in overtime.
* The St. Louis Blues beat the Los Angeles Kings, 7-3 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.
* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Nashville Predators, 6-4 at the Canada Life Center in Winnipeg.
* The Vancouver Canucks beat the Seattle Kraken, 4-2 at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.
* And the Boston Bruins, the Chicago Blackhawks, the Dallas Stars, the Edmonton Oilers, the San Jose Sharks and the Vegas Golden Knights were not scheduled.
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