  The precise measurement of the masses and radii of stars in eclipsing binary
systems provides a window into uncertain processes in stellar evolution,
especially mixing at convective boundaries. Recently, these data have been used
to calibrate models of convective overshooting in the cores of main sequence
stars. In this study we have used a small representative sample of eclipsing
binary stars with $1.25 \leq M/\text{M}_\odot < 4.2$ to test how precisely this
method can constrain the overshooting and whether the data support a universal
stellar mass--overshooting relation. We do not recover the previously reported
stellar mass dependence for the extent of overshooting and in each case we find
there is a substantial amount of uncertainty, that is, the same binary pair can
be matched by models with different amounts of overshooting. Models with a
moderate overshooting parameter $0.013 \leq f_\text{os} \leq 0.014$ (using the
scheme from Herwig et al. 1997) are consistent with all eight systems studied.
Generally, a much larger range of $f_\text{os}$ is suitable for individual
systems. In the case of main sequence and early post-main sequence stars, large
changes in the amount of overshooting have little effect on the radius and
effective temperature, and therefore the method is of extremely limited
utility.
