Two Big Clock Rule Changes Contemplated for College Football

[KingWard]

NCAA Considering 2 Big College Football Rule Changes

Over the last few years, pace of play and game length in college football have become the subject of complaining by fans around the country. According to The

thespun.com

I'm not in favor of changing the clock rules on incomplete passes when video reviews are what really have gotten the length of games out of hand. Fix that.

I'm ok with not stopping the clock to move the chains. That was an unnecessary innovation to start with.

 

[Guy in the Back]

I know they got to do it for money, but the commercial breaks (frequency and duration) slows televised games down tremendously. When you attend a non-televised games, they go much faster!

 

[BoydCreekCock]

Have two levels of commercials like they do in golf. One is a full commercial on the other is a playing through.

 

[CockofEarle]

NCAA Considering 2 Big College Football Rule Changes

Over the last few years, pace of play and game length in college football have become the subject of complaining by fans around the country. According to The

thespun.com

I'm not in favor of changing the clock rules on incomplete passes when video reviews are what really have gotten the length of games out of hand. Fix that.

I'm ok with not stopping the clock to move the chains. That was an unnecessary innovation to start with.

Follow the money…….who pays the bills…..can’t afford to cook the golden goose.

 

[HillsToSea]

When I was younger,a college football game took about two and a half hours,give or take. And you hardly noticed the refs. Now they hold more discussions during a game, in addition to and largely because of reviews

 

[Fowlmoodin99]

I like the stopping the clock to move the chains late because it contributes to last minute drives. So on that I'm a little conflicted.

 

[Fried Chicken]

I like the stopping the clock to move the chains late because it contributes to last minute drives. So on that I'm a little conflicted.

I’m with you. The game is fine. The only changes that need to be made are to the recent changes they made to the game. Stop ejecting players for targeting unless they are repeat offenders. Sick of seeing a guy get kicked out for a judgment call.

 

[FireantD]

NCAA Considering 2 Big College Football Rule Changes

Over the last few years, pace of play and game length in college football have become the subject of complaining by fans around the country. According to The

thespun.com

I'm not in favor of changing the clock rules on incomplete passes when video reviews are what really have gotten the length of games out of hand. Fix that.

I'm ok with not stopping the clock to move the chains. That was an unnecessary innovation to start with.

Agree on the reviews. They are taking way too long. And most of them are reviewing targeting to see if there's a tiny split second of head to head contact.

 

[18IsTheMan]

I agree with all the comments on reviews being what's screwing the game up the most. Quit reviewing every darn thing. And don't take so stinking long. If you can't make a decision in 30 seconds, then the call on the field should stand. Better yet, just do away with reviews altogether and go back to when the game was more fun. Fans lived with and argued and bickered about bad calls, questionable calls, non-calls, for years. It was fun. We came up on the short end of the stick, but it's still fun to banter about the push-off/catch 2. Part of the problem is we have too much information. 800 cameras capturing every conceivable angle. Just go back to a couple cameras and let fans live with the mystery.

Taking away clock stoppages on first downs is a terrible idea. It's an integral part of how teams play in close games down the stretch.

 

[Superstar90]

I agree with all the comments on reviews being what's screwing the game up the most. Quit reviewing every darn thing. And don't take so stinking long. If you can't make a decision in 30 seconds, then the call on the field should stand. Better yet, just do away with reviews altogether and go back to when the game was more fun. Fans lived with and argued and bickered about bad calls, questionable calls, non-calls, for years. It was fun. We came up on the short end of the stick, but it's still fun to banter about the push-off/catch 2. Part of the problem is we have too much information. 800 cameras capturing every conceivable angle. Just go back to a couple cameras and let fans live with the mystery.

Taking away clock stoppages on first downs is a terrible idea. It's an integral part of how teams play in close games down the stretch.

You haven't been a Gamecock fan for the past 30+years I'm guessing. If there's one thing we need, it's reviews for us. We could have an additional 8-10 wins easily over the years because of blatant bad refs. My mind is flooding itself with play after play of us getting screwed over the years.
I say we all just suck it up. There's only 12-15 times a year your team gets to play, that leaves you roughly 352days a year to not worry about it.

 

[18IsTheMan]

You haven't been a Gamecock fan for the past 30+years I'm guessing. If there's one thing we need, it's reviews for us. We could have an additional 8-10 wins easily over the years because of blatant bad refs. My mind is flooding itself with play after play of us getting screwed over the years.
I say we all just suck it up. There's only 12-15 times a year your team gets to play, that leaves you roughly 352days a year to not worry about it.

Meh, every team in college football can lay claim to a handful or so of missed wins over a period as long as 30 years. It's part of the game.

 

[Fried Chicken]

You haven't been a Gamecock fan for the past 30+years I'm guessing. If there's one thing we need, it's reviews for us. We could have an additional 8-10 wins easily over the years because of blatant bad refs. My mind is flooding itself with play after play of us getting screwed over the years.
I say we all just suck it up. There's only 12-15 times a year your team gets to play, that leaves you roughly 352days a year to not worry about it.

The problem with reviews is that it has created even more pressure for the referees. And they can’t handle it. The quality of refereeing has gone down so much since replay. It took them years to figure out how to allow a play to continue rather than blowing it dead. This has led to far mar reviews…sometimes reviewing plays that have no business being reviewed. And it created situations where if they do prematurely blow the play dead…it’s the worst thing ever.

 

[vacock]

Some conferences use local guys to move the chains. Talk about home field advantage!

 

[Harvard Gamecock]

NCAA Considering 2 Big College Football Rule Changes

Over the last few years, pace of play and game length in college football have become the subject of complaining by fans around the country. According to The

thespun.com

I'm not in favor of changing the clock rules on incomplete passes when video reviews are what really have gotten the length of games out of hand. Fix that.

I'm ok with not stopping the clock to move the chains. That was an unnecessary innovation to start with.

I'm with you on the incomplete pass.

 

[18IsTheMan]

This is akin to someone having a bullet wound and a scrape on their knee and putting a band aid on the scrape but ignoring the bullet wound.

 

[92Pony]

My first thought - and correct me if I'm misunderstanding - is that on an incompletion, the clock will restart when the ball is spotted. Doesn't that pretty much nullify the effect of 'clocking' the ball? The clock would stop for a few seconds, but since the ball is clocked right at the LOS, it would be restarted pretty quickly, therefore defeating the purpose of 'clocking' the ball.

If I'm understanding that correctly, I could see the return of the old 'pass thrown over the wideout's head into the sidelines' (thereby giving the offense the stoppage/time gained by clocking the ball as it stood in 2021).

 

[18IsTheMan]

I’m with you. The game is fine. The only changes that need to be made are to the recent changes they made to the game. Stop ejecting players for targeting unless they are repeat offenders. Sick of seeing a guy get kicked out for a judgment call.

Agree on the reviews. They are taking way too long. And most of them are reviewing targeting to see if there's a tiny split second of head to head contact.

Throw targeting out altogether. The overwhelming majority of plays reviewed for targeting are utterly subjective. The vast majority are simply the result playing the game fast. A very small percentage, much less than 10%, are anything close to what could be considered reckless or intentional. They've taken something that's a minor component of the game and blown it up into the biggest thing. And, each review takes several minutes. I watched one game last season and it was out of hand. It seemed the refs were stopping the game every 4 or 5 plays to review a targeting call.

 

[Harvard Gamecock]

My first thought - and correct me if I'm misunderstanding - is that on an incompletion, the clock will restart when the ball is spotted. Doesn't that pretty much nullify the effect of 'clocking' the ball? The clock would stop for a few seconds, but since the ball is clocked right at the LOS, it would be restarted pretty quickly, therefore defeating the purpose of 'clocking' the ball.

If I'm understanding that correctly, I could see the return of the old 'pass thrown over the wideout's head into the sidelines' (thereby giving the offense the stoppage/time gained by clocking the ball as it stood in 2021).

The way I understood the new ruling, and as you stated, this would most likely phase out the "clocking the ball" strategy.

 

[KingWard]

The way I understood the new ruling, and as you stated, this would most likely phase out the "clocking the ball" strategy.

If the rule were to change - I hope it doesn't - you could do it to stop the clock but it wouldn't stop for very long. They don't need to mess with the clock rules regarding the incomplete pass.

 

[KingWard]

I agree with all the comments on reviews being what's screwing the game up the most. Quit reviewing every darn thing. And don't take so stinking long. If you can't make a decision in 30 seconds, then the call on the field should stand. Better yet, just do away with reviews altogether and go back to when the game was more fun. Fans lived with and argued and bickered about bad calls, questionable calls, non-calls, for years. It was fun. We came up on the short end of the stick, but it's still fun to banter about the push-off/catch 2. Part of the problem is we have too much information. 800 cameras capturing every conceivable angle. Just go back to a couple cameras and let fans live with the mystery.

Taking away clock stoppages on first downs is a terrible idea. It's an integral part of how teams play in close games down the stretch.

If they were to take away the stoppage on first down, would they at least put in a two-minute warning like the NFL has? They should, but really they don't need to go in this direction at all.

 

[92Pony]

If they were to take away the stoppage on first down, would they at least put in a two-minute warning like the NFL has? They should, but really they don't need to go in this direction at all.

I've always wondered why the NFL has 2min warnings, but the college game does not....

 

[KingWard]

I've always wondered why the NFL has 2min warnings, but the college game does not....

It's basically a crumb thrown to the trailing team - in case there is a chance for a comeback. It gives them a little more time. It's not as if coaches and players don't know how much time is on the clock.

 

[world famous 3rd base hecklers]

NCAA Considering 2 Big College Football Rule Changes

Over the last few years, pace of play and game length in college football have become the subject of complaining by fans around the country. According to The

thespun.com

I'm not in favor of changing the clock rules on incomplete passes when video reviews are what really have gotten the length of games out of hand. Fix that.

I'm ok with not stopping the clock to move the chains. That was an unnecessary innovation to start with.

When you're behind, I want that clock stopped.

 

[Uscg1984]

Every time "they" decide college games are too long, their first instinct is to tinker with the clock rules so there are fewer overall plays (less total football for us to enjoy). They never suggest just cutting out about 10 minutes of commercials, even though that is the most obvious solution to overly long TV broadcasts.

Speed up the official (replay) reviews. And since ESPN will never reduce commercials, if a game has the potential to run long, do a split-screen thing with the commercials like NASCAR does. Do those two things and the problem is solved. Don't reduce the total number of football plays.

 

[Cocksure]

LOL!! It about making more time for more commercials.

 

[Psycock]

Less football - we don`t need that. Perfect example of a group trying to mess up the best game in town in order to justify their positions, Leave it the hell alone. If you want to shorten OT, give each team one shot from midfield. If it ends in a tie, so be it,

 

[KingWard]

Every time "they" decide college games are too long, their first instinct is to tinker with the clock rules so there are fewer overall plays (less total football for us to enjoy). They never suggest just cutting out about 10 minutes of commercials, even though that is the most obvious solution to overly long TV broadcasts.

Speed up the official (replay) reviews. And since ESPN will never reduce commercials, if a game has the potential to run long, do a split-screen thing with the commercials like NASCAR does. Do those two things and the problem is solved. Don't reduce the total number of football plays.

Seems to me that, if they shorten the game, they reduce commercials. But maybe they're thinking of using the time they save to ADD commercials. Wouldn't THAT blow?

 

[Cybercock]

It's basically a crumb thrown to the trailing team - in case there is a chance for a comeback. It gives them a little more time. It's not as if coaches and players don't know how much time is on the clock.

I always figured it was just a way to make sure they could get a guaranteed commercial break as the game was ending
$$$

 

[KingWard]

I always figured it was just a way to make sure they could get a guaranteed commercial break as the game was ending
$$$

Who knows? The two minute warning has been around my whole life. TV didn't always call the shots like it does now.

 

[FireantD]

Throw targeting out altogether. The overwhelming majority of plays reviewed for targeting are utterly subjective. The vast majority are simply the result playing the game fast. A very small percentage, much less than 10%, are anything close to what could be considered reckless or intentional. They've taken something that's a minor component of the game and blown it up into the biggest thing. And, each review takes several minutes. I watched one game last season and it was out of hand. It seemed the refs were stopping the game every 4 or 5 plays to review a targeting call.

If targeting is not called on the field in real time then the game keeps moving. If it is called on the field, review it real quick and let's move along. And get rid of the ejection. Make it 15 yards and keep it moving. There are very few that look anywhere close to deliberate. The vast majority of them are bang bang plays.

Perhaps they could put a timer on the review process. Maybe give them a minute and a half to look at the play in question. If no decision can be made in that time. Call stands, mark the ball and let's go. And with the technology we have, and the fact that the refs on the field don't review it, why can't someone run an earpiece out to them? Why do they have run down to one corner of the field?

 

[Importcock]

Every time "they" decide college games are too long, their first instinct is to tinker with the clock rules so there are fewer overall plays (less total football for us to enjoy). They never suggest just cutting out about 10 minutes of commercials, even though that is the most obvious solution to overly long TV broadcasts.

Speed up the official (replay) reviews. And since ESPN will never reduce commercials, if a game has the potential to run long, do a split-screen thing with the commercials like NASCAR does. Do those two things and the problem is solved. Don't reduce the total number of football plays.

This is basically what I was going to say. To shorten the overall time of the game they need to shorten anything that happens while the clock is stopped. We're basically getting less and less football and more commercials, reviews, etc.

 

[Lurker123]

I agree with attacking the stoppages. Reviews need to be a LOT faster. When they have a guest official in the booth make the call in about 10 seconds, and the replay booth just keeps stalling, it's frustrating.

I like the split screen idea. I also like that for games that go over. I hate missing the first part of a game I'm interested in for the end of a game I don't care about.

 

[Horseshoe04]

Um
Some times I reach the end of a thread and all I can say is

BOURBON

 

[gamecox4982]

All theses suggestions are legit but need to be tried out before implementing into a regular season games. If the NCAA would have preseason games some of these could be tried prior to moving forward. Games with Georgia State, SC St. and Charlotte should be the first three games played this year as preseason games. The revenue for these games will still be there, teams get to play a lot of players, and the NCAA can use these games to see how the changes will effect the next season. This would be advantageous for ALL involved