College football rule changes for 2023: Here's what you need to know

What to watch for as college football makes rule changes ahead of the 2023 season in an effort to shorten games

The powers that be in college football are looking to make games shorter and now they have three new rule changes on the books to do just that.

The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Pane has approved several options "to control the flow of the game and encourage more consistent game management."

Decision makers want to decrease the length of games.

"The Football Rules Committee anticipates the adjustments will modestly reduce the number of plays in the game, something it will study closely during the 2023 season" the NCAA said in a statement.

College football games have increased slightly in length over the last five seasons, from 3 hours 16 minutes in 2018 to 3 hours 21 minutes in 2022.

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College Football Rule Changes for 2023

1. Outlawing consecutive timeouts. This rule would prevent one timeout from being called right after another, which often happens as teams try to ice kickers.

2. Not extending quarters. This rule will make it so that a first or third quarter would not be extended for an un-timed down if the quarter ends on a defensive penalty. In that case, the down would be clocked in the next quarter.

3. Running clock. According to this rule, the clock will continue to run after an offense gains a first down except inside two minutes of a half. Under the old rule, the game clock stopped when a team gained a first down, and the clock restarted when the offense was awarded the first down.

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(NCAA)

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