When the University of Hawaii had finally finished off San Jose State, 44-41, in five overtimes last September, the Rainbow Warriors trudged up into the stands at CEFCU Stadium to thank the enduring UH partisans in attendance.

“I felt like I was running up Diamond Head,” well-worn slotback John Ursua said after a game-high 148 yards and three touchdowns on 13 receptions.

Next week the NCAA’s Football Rules Committee will meet in Indianapolis to consider possible changes, and one of the items on the agenda is tweaking the rules to reduce marathon games like the one that extended the ’Bows and Spartans into exhaustion and their respective school record books.

It was the second-longest overtime game played in 2018, trailing only the NCAA-record-tying seven OTs played two months later by Texas A&M and Louisiana State.

The concern, correctly so, among officials is the potential risk of injury to players who have been on the field for prolonged periods. The ’Bows and Spartans amassed 185 plays in their four-hour, four-minute endurance competition, nearly 50 more than an average Football Bowl Subdivision game.

“The overtime process is really not broken,” Steve Shaw, national coordinator of football officials, told the Associated Press. “It’s just when you go beyond two (periods) it is too much.”

Overall, there were 33 overtime games played in the NCAA’s FBS in 2018 and five went three overtimes or more.

The ’Bows might well have played in two had San Diego State head coach Rocky Long not chosen to go against convention and take an all-or-nothing shot at a 2-point conversion in closing out one overtime in November. The Aztecs came up short and lost 31-30.

The current overtime system was instituted in 1996 and gives each team a possession at the opponent’s 25-yard line, something not afforded NFL teams, as the Falcons know full well from Super Bowl LI.

In college, if the teams are still tied after two possessions each, then they are required to attempt a 2-point play following touchdowns starting with the third overtime instead of having an option to kick the extra point.

Proposed changes to be discussed reportedly include being required to go for a 2-point conversion after every overtime score, moving the ball back to the 35- or 40-yard line to begin each possession or engaging in a 2-point shootout of sorts.

Returning to the bygone era when games could end in ties (remember UH’s locker-combination-like 4-6-2 record in 1985?) is, thankfully, not on the table.

UH coach Nick Rolovich said he isn’t sure the current rules need to be changed. “Those are the kind of games people tend to remember forever,” Rolovich said. “You’d think people would be happy with more (time) on TV.”

Rolovich said, “The only (solution) I see is moving up the (mandatory) 2-point play.”

When UH scored a touchdown on its first overtime period in the San Jose State game, the ’Bows had to yell to get their Australian kicker, Ryan Meskell, out onto the field in time to kick the extra point.

“These (overtimes) were something new to me,” said Meskell, a native of Canberra, Australia, who eventually kicked a game-deciding 35-yard field goal in the fifth OT period. “I didn’t know you had to kick the point in overtime, too.”

Come this season, depending on what the committee decides, Meskell might be right about not having to kick any OT extra points.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.