{"id":64905,"date":"2025-04-04T12:04:43","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T16:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/?p=64905"},"modified":"2025-04-04T12:05:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T16:05:00","slug":"march-madness-overtime-rules-heres-what-we-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/march-madness-overtime-rules-heres-what-we-know\/64905\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness overtime rules: Here\u2019s what we know!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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What\u2019s better than March Madness? Getting even more basketball during<\/em> March Madness. Seriously, as if the tournament wasn\u2019t wild enough already, overtime takes things to a whole new level of excitement.<\/p>\n

The NCAA<\/a> Tournament officially starts on Thursday and brings nearly three straight weeks of intense matchups until a new national champion is crowned in Arizona. This yearly event never disappoints, there are shocking upsets, last-second buzzer-beaters, and so much chaos that even non-sports fans get hooked.<\/p>\n

Now, here\u2019s where things can get extra juicy: overtime. If a game ends in a tie after regular playing time, we get bonus basketball<\/a>, cue the screaming fans and nail-biting finishes. Last year, there was only one game that needed overtime, Kansas State\u2019s 98-93 thriller over Michigan State in the Sweet 16. So it doesn\u2019t happen all the time, but when it does? It\u2019s unforgettable.<\/p>\n

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March Madness overtime rules<\/strong><\/h2>\n

So here\u2019s how overtime works in March Madness\u2014it\u2019s actually pretty simple. If the game ends in a tie after the regular playing time, both teams get a shot at settling things in a five-minute overtime period. It\u2019s like bonus basketball, and every second counts.<\/p>\n

Now, if they\u2019re still<\/em> tied after those five minutes? No problem. They\u2019ll go into another five-minute overtime. And if that\u2019s still not enough? They\u2019ll just keep going. There\u2019s a short one-minute break between each overtime, but there\u2019s no limit<\/strong> to how many they can play. The game only ends once one team finally outscores the other during one of those OT rounds.<\/p>\n

Basically, they\u2019ll battle it out until there\u2019s a clear winner, no ties, no coin flips, just pure, high-stakes basketball until someone comes out on top.<\/p>\n

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For this year\u2019s tournament, if any match goes into overtime, here\u2019s how it works. If teams are tied at the end of regulation, they play a five-minute overtime period to determine a winner. If they\u2019re still tied after that? They just keep going. Another five minutes. Then another. And another. There\u2019s a short one-minute break between each OT period, but there\u2019s no cap on how many overtimes they can play. It\u2019s all about who can outlast the other.<\/p>\n

And no, this setup isn\u2019t just a March Madness thing. The regular college basketball season uses the same overtime rules. So whether it\u2019s December or March, tied games always head into five-minute OTs until someone wins.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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What is the longest March Madness game?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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As for the longest games in March Madness history? Two games went into four<\/em> overtimes, making them the most extended battles in the tournament. The first happened in 1956, when Canisius beat NC State 79-78 in a wild East Region quarterfinal at Madison Square Garden. The second came in 1961, when St. Joseph\u2019s won a 127-120 shootout against Utah in the national third-place game. Those were true endurance tests.<\/p>\n

So while overtime might not happen every game, when it does, it\u2019s basketball at its most dramatic. Keep an eye out\u2014this year\u2019s tournament could bring some overtime magic too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s better than March Madness? Getting more basketball during March Madness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":294,"featured_media":64906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[12180,12122],"class_list":["post-64905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","tag-march-madness","tag-march-madness-2024"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}