NCAA Rule Makers Propose Change to Speed Up College Football Games

College football games could be shorter if the NCAA can change the rules

The powers that be in college football are looking to make games shorter and now they have four rule change proposals on the table to do just that.

The NCAA Football Rules Committee has proposed several options "to control the flow of the game and encourage more consistent game management."

Decision makers want to decrease the length of games.

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.

College Football Rule Change Proposals

1. First down clock. "The game clock will continue to run when a first down is gained. Currently, the game clock stops when a first down is gained, and the clock restarts when the offense is awarded a first down. The game clock will continue to be stopped when a first down is gained during the last two minutes of either half."

2. Effort to reduce breaks. "Teams would be prohibited from calling consecutive team timeouts."

3. Penalties carrying over. "Penalties at the end of the first and third quarter would carry over and be enforced on the first play of the next quarter."

What's next?

Now the process moves to the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel, which will meet on April 20 to vote on whether to make the rule changes official.

The committee said these changes "would modestly reduce the number of plays in the game."

(NCAA)

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