Rice football hasn’t registered a tie in more than two decades. Even then, draws were a rare occurrence. The Owls have played 32 tied games in school history.
The tie has quickly become a footnote in college football history. Outside of soccer, which has had mixed interest in the United States at best, ties don’t frequently make appearances on any level of professional or collegiate sports. Rice football is no exception to that trend.
Entering the 2018 season Rice football has finished 269 consecutive games without a tie. That string of tie-less outcomes dates back to a 21-all finish against Army on Sept. 30, 1995. The result was a near-miss for the Owls, who were coached by Ken Hatfield at the time. With Rice leading by three points in the final moments, Army placekicker J. Parker booted through a 44-yard field goal to bring the score even. The final whistle sounded and the game was ended without a deciding point ever being scored.
At the time, no provision for overtime existed. That game was the 32nd tie in school history and the last time the Owls would leave a gem unresolved ever — at least according to the current college football overtime rules that were implemented in 1996. That season, the year following the Army-Rice draw, overtime was instituted. If the game ended without a winner teams would trade possessions starting at the 25-yard line until the score was no longer equal. Since then, draws have faded away from the lexicon of the modern college football fan.
Even when a tie was possible it was still an extremely rare occurrence. From 1970 to 1994 Rice tallied four tied games, a rate of 1.5 percent or three times for every 200 games. Now, the tie is nothing but ancient history, but it remains an interesting anecdote, a quirky part of Rice football history.
