New College Baseball Clock Rule Needs to be Trashed Already

Even Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn and his players agree change is damaging the game

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – When heading to the game either today or this weekend, if you haven't had the chance to catch a Razorback game already this season, then you need to be prepared for the unending headache that is the clock rule.

It's one of those many rules the NCAA cooks up that has the best of intentions, but boy has it already failed miserably and the season is only a few days old.

There wasn't a lot of effort to educate fans, and apparently not even players, or at least the hitters.

Over the course of the College Baseball Showdown, several hitters were called out as a result of this new clock rule. That sent us scrambling to try to understand exactly what happened, and, much like it was unclear to the guys slow walking back to the dugout with a look of extreme confusion on their face, we were left flummoxed also.

Here's the press release from the NCAA that explains the rule. There are two points of clarity desperately needed in this release. 

1) What starts the clock?

2) What causes the batter to earn a strike.

There is a reference to this last issue, but the sentence has no context to make it understandable, which probably explains why seemingly no hitters had an understanding as to what might trigger a strike call without a pitch.

The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel on Thursday approved modifications to baseball's 20-second action clock with runners on base for the 2023 season.

Under the rule, with runners on base, a pitcher will be required to start the motion of throwing a pitch or making a pickoff throw to avoid a clock violation.

Pitchers will be allowed one step-off or fake throw to a base per batter to reset the clock.

If a defensive player requests and is granted a timeout by an umpire, it would be treated the same as a step-off by the pitcher to reset the clock. Again, this will be allowed only once per batter.

If the 20-second clock expires without a pitch or pickoff throw being made, a ball will be added to the count.

Previously, pitchers received a warning for the first violation of the 20-second clock, and a ball was added to the count for any subsequent violations. Pitchers could make an unlimited number of step-offs or fake throws to reset the clock.

If the offense violates the 20-second clock, a strike still will be added to the count.

Along with providing seemingly unnecessary outs, it devolved into a miserable live viewing experience. 

As fans became aware of the clock, they wanted to help their pitchers out. As a result, they started counting down the final eight seconds or so.

Of course, opposing fans wanted to do all they could to affect the game in favor of their team, so they started counting down the clock early in hopes of putting pressure on the pitcher and causing him to rush.

What resulted was a really bad WWE Royal Rumble vibe with this insane noise of counting and delayed counting, except instead of it happening every three minutes, it literally happened every minute.

Fans synchronously counting in itself feels incredibly out of place in baseball. Dueling fan bases counting asynchronously over and over again is enough to make the most sane baseball fan want to shove his or her head into the popcorn maker.

If you don't want to take my word for it, then perhaps Dave Van Horn can clarify how horrible this new rule is.

"It's ruining the game," Van Horn said. "In my opinon, if the runner's on, don't have it.  It takes away from putting in different types of coverages or if you want to change one during an at-bat, you don't have time. It's not the same game."

Even Arkansas pitcher Zach Morris says it should go even though he said it's more of a disadvantage to the hitter.

"Sometimes, it could be chaotic if you're not used to working fast," Morris said. "Most of the time it's really not an issue as a pitcher. It's more of a hitter deal, especially if you're not in there in a certain amount of time. It just takes away from the game. That pitch, that at-bat, that moment can change the game."

In addition to not being able to adjust situationally, Van Horn said the rule puts the Hogs at a disadvantage with runners on looking to steal or get an early jump on a hit-and-run.

"If it's getting down to 3, 2, 1, and they're on base, they know our pitcher has got to pitch and they can get a good start there," Van Horn said. "To me, we can be quicker at pitching, that's not a problem. It's just all the other things."

While the clock rule has definitely been a pain, there mercy rule that was implemented this season could be a positive for the Razorbacks. This change allows teams to agree ahead of time if they want to end a game early if things get out of hand.

It came into play Sunday afternoon in an 18-1 win over Oklahoma State after both teams agreed that if things got hopeless between Razorbacks and Cowboys after such a long weekend of play, they would end it after seven innings.

"I got asked a question yesterday by our opps person Clay Goodwin as he was on the phone with somebody here at the tournament," Van Horn said following the win over Oklahoma State. "He wanted to know are you good with playing the run rule after seven cause Oklahoma State is. I said,’ That’s fine.’ That was basically what I said."

We'll see in a few hours whether that one shows up again as Arkansas takes on Grambling at Baum-Walker Stadium at 3 p.m.

As long as the internet works, we plan to have a live blog for Razorback fans to follow along from work.