Proposed Rules to Shorten Time of College Football Games

1,388 Views | 18 Replies | Last: 1 yr ago by HoopDreams
bearister
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"Baseball isn't the only sport trying to make its games shorter, Axios' Jeff Tracy and I write.

Driving the news: The NCAA Football Rules Committee has proposed three measures that would shorten college football games, including one aimed specifically at reducing the number of plays.

Why it matters: The more plays, the more opportunity to get injured. And with a longer season coming in 2024 when the College Football Playoff expands, the NCAA wants to get a head start on improving player safety.

Details: The most impactful proposal would see the clock continue to run after a first down except in the final two minutes of either half, just like in the NFL. Currently, the clock is stopped after a first down until the refs reset the chains and spot the ball.

That change would eliminate about eight plays per game, per the NCAA.
Over a 12-game season, that would save 96 potential injury exposures per team, AP notes.

The other two proposals: No consecutive timeouts in the same dead-ball period (often used to ice the kicker), and no untimed downs on penalties at the end of the first and third quarters.

Between the lines: While the NCAA and MLB are both eyeing shorter games, they have different goals in doing so.

MLB wants to play baseball faster because games can be sluggish.
The NCAA wants to play football less because games can be barbaric.

By the numbers: Safety aside, shortening games might not be the worst thing for college football, where bloated runtimes rank among fans' biggest complaints.

The average FBS game last season averaged 3 hours, 27 minutes and 180 plays. Compare that to the NFL, which averaged 3:10 and 155 plays.

Wild stat: The Buccaneers led the NFL last season with 68.8 plays per game. That would have tied for 85th-most among FBS teams.

What's next: The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel will meet on April 20 to discuss the proposals, which if accepted would take effect this fall."
-Axios
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chalcidbear
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Love the idea of eliminating the consecutive timeouts. I've seen very little evidence that that tactic works anyway.
Chabbear
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Reducing plays is not entirely the same as reducing the amount of time of the games. For instance, I watch D3 where the games are not televised. The games are about
2.5 hours or less. In my opinion, this reduction is not about safety or game time but money. If it was not money, the best way to reduce injuries by reducing plays would be to go back to 11 games.
Bearly Clad
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Don't mess with the game. If you really want to shorten the time of games then take out the excessive commercial breaks. No one needs a TD and commercial break then kickoff and another commercial break. When it happens at the end of the quarter it's especially frustrating
59bear
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Bearly Clad said:

Don't mess with the game. If you really want to shorten the time of games then take out the excessive commercial breaks. No one needs a TD and commercial break then kickoff and another commercial break. When it happens at the end of the quarter it's especially frustrating
Of course eliminating/limiting commercial breaks will increase the cost to watch games on TV by pushing us into higher cable/streaming fees or some pay per view model. An easier fix would be to eliminate the clock stoppage on first downs.
Bobodeluxe
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59bear said:

Bearly Clad said:

Don't mess with the game. If you really want to shorten the time of games then take out the excessive commercial breaks. No one needs a TD and commercial break then kickoff and another commercial break. When it happens at the end of the quarter it's especially frustrating
Of course eliminating/limiting commercial breaks will increase the cost to watch games on TV by pushing us into higher cable/streaming fees or some pay per view model. An easier fix would be to eliminate the clock stoppage on first downs.
Even better, double the number of commercial breaks, and remove the gates, all free festival seating, and open doors to any and all private vendors!
JSC 76
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The reason games run so long now: commercials.
The proposed solution: less football, same number of commercials.

Does anybody else see the flaw in this?
bearsandgiants
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I like getting my money's worth with a good long game.
Bobodeluxe
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So, IT'S UNANIMOUS! The one or two dozen hereby support more commercials, and longer games!
bearsandgiants
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We don't have to worry about lots of commercials with our nonexistent TV contract.
Bobodeluxe
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bearsandgiants said:

We don't have to worry about lots of commercials with our nonexistent TV contract.
AppleTV brings you commercial free football, streamed live or anytime.

Got two hours available Saturday afternoon? See it live, and have a day without bear growls and BART races.
BearSD
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JSC 76 said:

The reason games run so long now: commercials.
The proposed solution: less football, same number of commercials.

Does anybody else see the flaw in this?
The problem is that TV has college football by the cojones and can dictate how many commercials they want in each telecast.

With the NFL, it's the other way around. The NFL calls the shots. They want their TV partners to make money, but they also have the leverage to control their own product by keeping their game times to just over 3 hours, commercials included.


HoopDreams
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espn said the pitch clock in baseball took 28 minutes out of games this season

basketball has shortened the shot clock

both sports seems to have adjusted

there are ways to reduce the length of football games
59bear
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Bobodeluxe said:

59bear said:

Bearly Clad said:

Don't mess with the game. If you really want to shorten the time of games then take out the excessive commercial breaks. No one needs a TD and commercial break then kickoff and another commercial break. When it happens at the end of the quarter it's especially frustrating
Of course eliminating/limiting commercial breaks will increase the cost to watch games on TV by pushing us into higher cable/streaming fees or some pay per view model. An easier fix would be to eliminate the clock stoppage on first downs.
Even better, double the number of commercial breaks, and remove the gates, all free festival seating, and open doors to any and all private vendors!
Commercials or pay-per-view are the price paid by those who can't/won't attend live events. I record the games I want to see and fast forward through commercial breaks so I'm not annoyed by them. Admittedly, for the minority who attend games in person commercial breaks are a major nuisance.
Civil Bear
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HoopDreams said:

espn said the pitch clock in baseball took 28 minutes out of games this season

basketball has shortened the shot clock

both sports seems to have adjusted

there are ways to reduce the length of football games
Basketball has reduced the length of its games by shortening the shot clock?
HoopDreams
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of course not. my point was you can make significant changes in the game without impacting traditions or the game because coaches and players adjust

did adding a pitch clock in baseball make the game worse or better?

in my opinion…. better, yet many people disagree …. why is that?




Civil Bear said:

HoopDreams said:

espn said the pitch clock in baseball took 28 minutes out of games this season

basketball has shortened the shot clock

both sports seems to have adjusted

there are ways to reduce the length of football games
Basketball has reduced the length of its games by shortening the shot clock?
BearSD
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The NFL keeps the game clock running after first downs. No one thinks that rule adversely affects the game.

But the college proposal is a very minor change that makes it look like they are serious about reducing the average game time without doing anything truly significant.

If they were really serious about getting rid of unnecessary clock stoppages, they would keep the clock running even if a ballcarrier steps out of bounds. Going out of bounds doesn't require a clock stoppage, just as completing a pass 20 yards downfield doesn't require a clock stoppage. For that matter, it's not necessary to stop the clock after an incomplete pass, either.

In the event that coaches want to keep their old methods of stopping the clock at the end of a half, they could keep the clock stoppages for out of bounds plays and incompletions for just the last two minutes of each half, as they are going to do with the first down clock stoppages.
Oakbear
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frankly, for people attending/watching a game does 15 minutes mean that much

my guess is that this is driven by TV .. they get shorter games which gives them more flexibility .. they don't give up any commercials...their costs go down if the game is shorter, etc

but, disguise this as being for the fans ...



HoopDreams
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the 3 rule changes are all good ones that don't impact the traditional game but keeps the pace up and reduces the duration

and yes, 15 minutes is meaningful

all games should be 3 hours or less
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