College football directors are looking for ways to shorten games

Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde and Ross Dellenger discuss college football executives’ plans to try to shorten the length of college football games through rule changes and discuss which rule changes should be approved.

Video transcript

AND WETZEL: I mean, I don’t have a problem with the length of the game. Because selfishly, we talk about college football all year long. I’m not going to sit and go, boy, I hope we get this done sooner.

[AUDIO LOGO]

The clock is changing. I think this was like Chapter 11 “Death to BCS”. Basically they just took my manifesto and now finally got to it.

[LAUGHTER]

So obviously there is a security component to this. They say, look, we’re going to add these playoffs. We want to shorten the games. How many games you play is not one argument. It’s how many reps you have, how many times you hit, how many times you cut, how many times you line up against someone.

Like pitch count, right? No matter how many times a man starts. How many strikes he throws will determine if he ends up having Tommy John surgery. So that was always the theory.

College football games have a lot more plays than NFL games because of clock rules. So there is a security component to it. I would assume that when these billion dollar TV deals come through, there’s probably a motivation here to make sure the TV partners are happy that their windows are filled. So if you start a game at noon, it will be over at 3:30 when the next game starts.

ROSS DELLENGER: Are you saying television influences or affects college football legislation and rules and rulings? Get out of here, Dan.

AND WETZEL: Texas A&M would never give NIL money to anyone.

ROSS DELLENGER: No no.

AND WETZEL: There are four proposals. Ross, you broke it. Would you like to unpack these for us?

ROSS DELLENGER: The first is probably the least controversial and no longer extends the first or third quarter after a defensive penalty. Instead, the bill would be played in the next quarter, and would apparently be timed. Again, it’s the least controversial. Probably the least impact.

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AND WETZEL: Okay, this is something I didn’t even realize they did.

[LAUGHTER]

I’ve been a college football player – I’ve played a lot of games. I had no clue. So if the defensive tackle is on the last play of the third quarter, they play again after that. Or any play you would have to make on downs, it would just be an untimed play at the end of the third quarter. I didn’t even realize.

ROSS DELLENGER: It’s an accepted defensive penalty.

AND WETZEL: How often did this happen?

ROSS DELLENGER: How often?

AND WETZEL: How often did this happen?

ROSS DELLENGER: Yeah, not very often.

AND WETZEL: Okay. It just didn’t even dawn on me.

ROSS DELLENGER: Again, the following is pretty much considered non-controversial. More happens than the first. And coaches call back-to-back timeouts before a kickoff or, as they say, during one dead ball. Usually this happens when you ice the kickers of course. So the NFL has this rule, and the university would just adopt an NFL rule that would not allow back-to-back timeouts.

PAT FORDE: Yeah, common sense. Do it.

AND WETZEL: Yeah, turn it off a bit. Also, kind of a doozy of a move. I mean–

ROSS DELLENGER: Number three. And those three and four are a little more impressive and a little more controversial, although number three gets pretty good support. And this is that the clock continues to run after the offense gets a first down, except within two minutes of the half. So again, it’s an adoption of an NFL rule.

Currently, the NFL continues to run the clock after first downs, except within two. They might even run the clock in two minutes, but college football doesn’t. So their version is within two minutes of the half, they stop the clock after the first down. But otherwise, they keep it going.

AND WETZEL: The NFL doesn’t stop after a first down.

ROSS DELLENGER: ALRIGHT.

PAT FORDE: Properly.

AND WETZEL: So yes.

PAT FORDE: Yeah. Yeah. And I say hallelujah to that. I mean, I think that’s been one of the biggest obstacles to getting college games almost as fast as NFL games.

AND WETZEL: I have no problem with this. I mean, I don’t have a problem with the length of the game. Because selfishly, we talk about college football all year long. I’m not going to sit and go, boy, I hope we get this done sooner. So that’s good. Go forward.

ROSS DELLENGER: Number four, last and certainly the most significant, influential and controversial would be the clock – this proposal would see the clock continue after an incomplete pass when the ball is spotted in play. So this would obviously be quite significant. So the clock would stop, but then it would run almost as soon as the ball is spotted, which, as we know, the officials have been pretty quick with that.

So it would only be a few seconds, and the clock would be detected again. And again, the most significant. I will say that I’ve heard from some officials about this that we’d all be surprised at how much support this has with admin types. It doesn’t get any support from the coaches at all.

PAT FORDE: Properly. It changes your whole mechanics and just your intuition about how you go from play to play.

AND WETZEL: This is more dramatic. It changes your offense dramatically. In the NFL, it’s very difficult to move the ball at the end of the half and they do it. But the reason they do it is because it’s Patrick Mahomes, it’s Tom Brady or it was. It’s the level of skill to move when you can’t get to the middle of the field.

ROSS DELLENGER: Many of these are being considered by the NFL — as we discussed, the NFL already does. Of course this is not. This is the NFL–

PAT FORDE: Properly.

ROSS DELLENGER: –doesn’t.

PAT FORDE: I don’t think there’s any level of football where they run the clock after an incomplete pass.

ROSS DELLENGER: No.

PAT FORDE: So–

ROSS DELLENGER: These four that were discussed were similar to last year and the year before, and did not go through. And they just didn’t have the support. And this year again, gradually every year.

We’re getting closer and closer to where this year, it’s pretty clear that at least two of those four will go, two non-controversial ones. And probably the third, the first bill, has enough support, it looks like it will pass. And the fourth sure sounds like we’re going to have quite a conversation in the room.

AND WETZEL: I skip them all. I skip them all. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.