TO's first year 1973, against Missouri, Kansas and Okie St. were 1 pt loss, 1 pt win and a tie, respectively
Against Missouri he went for the win, and was chastised for not going for the tie.
Two weeks later, learning his lesson, he went for the tie. And was chastised for not going for the win.
TO said from the experience, paraphrased: "From now on I am going to do what I feel is best for the team, and not read the papers"
You can't compare the decisions before the overtime rule was in effect vs. now. Used to be that the decision was an almost sure tie vs. going for the win. Now the decision is whether to try to win on one play vs. trying to beat them in OT. There is no clear cut decision.
I took a quick google at the odds of making a 2 point conversion. The only thing I found quickly was this article: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news...o&type=lgns, which refers (I think) to NFL stats that says an extra point is 99% while a 2 point conversion has a 44% success rate. If you think you have a 50/50 chance of winning in OT, that says you should go for 1 and go to OT.
But it's close enough that you might reconsider if you are big underdogs, like we were. It might be a lot less that 50/50 in OT. However, we were out playing TT at that point, and have a better kicker. And that kicker difference could easily have been the decider.
I think if you are the better team, it's a no-brainer to put it in OT. If the teams are even-up, still looks like better odds in OT. If you've tied it on flukes and have no business being in the game with the other team, roll the dice and go for 2. Otherwise, it's a gut feeling call. I was calling for sending it into OT but wouldn't have been upset to go for 2, even if it didn't work. We were a big underdog but I don't think we got there by flukes at all.
Yes I know the rules are different.
The previous poster mentioned " TO did the same things and learned from them" and I gave the data that backed him up.
The most important line from my post was TO learned that unless you win, people will always second guess you, so as a coach you can't listen to what others (thats us) say, but be true to yourself.