NCAA Football Rules on the One-Point Safety

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Football Rulebook delineates six different kinds of scoring plays, each with particular point values. These include touchdowns (6 points), successful field goals (3 points), and safeties (2 points). The rulebook also stipulates three ways to score points after a touchdown: a 2-point conversion (2 points), a successful extra point kick (1 point), and an extra-point safety (1 point). Incidences of 1-point safeties are extremely rare, with only three occurring since the establishment of new rules in 1988.

  1. Offense

    • A conversion safety occurs when, after successfully intercepting, recovering or blocking a conversion attempt, the ball still travels behind the defense and out of the end zone, or a defensive player newly in possession of the football is tackled out of bounds beyond his own end zone. If this occurs, the offense is awarded one point, despite having failed at the traditional conversion attempt.

    Defense

    • The defense, or recovering team, can also score 1 point after gaining possession of the football after blocking a conversion attempt. This can be achieved when a defensive player runs the ball from the point of recovery into the opponent's end zone at the other end of the field (similar to a touchdown.) Since this end zone is 97 yards away from the line of scrimmage, or starting point of the conversion attempt, it is very rare that a defensive player would be able to travel this distance on the field without being tackled or driven out of bounds. It has happened on a few rare instances, however.

    Texas vs. Texas A&M

    • The only documented incidence of a conversion safety in an NCAA Division I game occurred during a game between the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University on Nov. 26, 2004. A dropped snap during an extra point kick attempt was fumbled by Texas. Jaxson Appel, a player for the Texas A&M defense, returned the recovered fumble for a one-point safety. The head coach of Texas at the time, Mac Brown, admitted after the game to his embarrassment that he did not know about the conversion safety rule.