http://www.espn.com/college-football/sto...-game-2016

To me, the best way to handle this is the way that's probably least likely to happen. Cut down on commercials. That way you don't change the game itself. Of course, it's all about $$$ these days, so doubtful that'll happen. They care about the players when it doesn't cost them money to care.

I think this talk is ridiculous pointless. The game has changed, more teams are passing the football than ever, which means more incompletions, which mean more clock stoppage. Not to mention the quality and resources for replay and review of plays has changed it too (thank the networks and the gazillion camera angles).

My opinion: you can really thank "player safety" for the longer games. The refs need to stop throwing the silly flags and let the boys play.

----keep the clock running when team gets first down (as done in the NFL-except last 2 min. of game)

----reduce timeouts by one per half per team

---90 second time limit on reviews(if they can't decide in 90 sec--call on field stands)

Do all three!!---Try for one or two years--you can always adjust or go back!!

(01-07-2017 12:26 AM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  ----keep the clock running when team gets first down (as done in the NFL-except last 2 min. of game)

----reduce timeouts by one per half per team

---90 second time limit on reviews(if they can't decide in 90 sec--call on field stands)

Do all three!!---Try for one or two years--you can always adjust or go back!!

I'm ok with the first one. The last one I'm iffy on because I like making sure they get it right, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. But reducing time outs I don't like. I wouldn't want them to change the game itself, just keep it moving a little better.

1. Rain delays- reduce the 30 minutes wait time after the last lightning strike to 10-15 minutes. The game can always be stopped again if needed.
2. Quit taking 10 minutes to review every other play for a "possible" targeting violation. Good grief, if the referees on the field thought it was a clean play then MOVE ON WITH THE GAME!!!

Like the NFL, college football games are becoming more and more about the 'replay booth' and it is lengthening the games and turning off fans.

Just adopt NFL rules...keep the clock running.

Cut the TV commercials in half, and ESPN quit paying the P5 schools obscene amounts of money while you are at it.

I have no interest in designing rules that create less football. I wish the games were longer.

I know they are talking averages here. But is reducing the time of games from 3:30 to 3:15 really making that big of a difference. Complaining over an average difference of 15 minutes in my opinion is laughable. The game now wants high powered offense and lots of scoring. You can't have it both ways. Maybe if teams played better defense at times and we didn't have 67-66 games like the WKU vs Marshall game the games wouldn't take as long either. So there is a suggestion for you...better defense. Leads to less scores and less scores lead to less stoppages in play. I personally think it is fine how it is.

Running clock after first downs would have little impact since that is almost being done now. First down stoppages are already less than 10 seconds and many times less than 5 seconds now. 20 years ago the full chain had to be set before the clock was restarted, and that took 15-20 seconds each time.

As stated already, the biggest factor in increased game length is TV commercials. 3-4 breaks with a maximum of 6 total minutes of commercial time during each quarter would shorten games by 8-10 minutes. The complaint is that game lengths this year averaged 7 minutes more than 2013.

The game itself needs little change. Factors outside the game need to be changed first.

Sharing Rice's offense with the rest of the conference?

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Part of what's caused this is all the rules changes which have increasingly have favored the offense, leading to more scoring and more stoppages. Throw in officials' instant replay reviews on everything from where balls should be spotted to whether or not there's targeting, and you have Exhibit A.

(01-06-2017 11:18 PM)Eagle in the gym Wrote:  http://www.espn.com/college-football/sto...-game-2016

Easy. Clock rules like NFL.

Way to many TV time outs, to many reviews and to many fake injury time outs. Nothing wrong with the amount of actual play time, just cut down some of the unnecessary delays.

(01-07-2017 04:38 PM)Old Dominion Wrote:  Way to many TV time outs, to many reviews and to many fake injury time outs. Nothing wrong with the amount of actual play time, just cut down some of the unnecessary delays.

This. It's not the game, it's mainly the refs and those dang reviews. Cut the number of things that can be reviewed. Don't change the game, change what delays the game.

Stuff like this drives me crazy. Games are longer for a few very simple reasons.

1. The dude with the red hat who can't seem to get off the field, i.e. the commercial guy.
2. The overuse of instant replay. They review way too many plays, either obvious ones or ones that don't make a difference.
3. Rule changes, like the targeting stuff, that requires even more reviews and downtime.

So they want to shorten the amount of time for actual football playing so they can keep all the other stuff.

(01-07-2017 08:23 AM)blueraidermike Wrote:  Just adopt NFL rules...keep the clock running.

College has already adopted too many NFL rules. I don't watch artificial football on Sundays, and I certainly don't want to see it on Saturdays too.

College football used to have the different clock rules. They were changed back in the day to encourage scoring since so many offenses were run run run & run. Not only would it make the games faster but it would be less wear & tear on players.

Here's an EASY one that apparently no one here seems to have thought of: Change the requirement for "injured" players. If you are injured, you have to sit out the rest of the series for evaluation. (The current rule only requires a player to sit out one play.)

We had a minimum of 15 game stoppages when LA Tech played at UMASS in 2016. Of course, 100% of the injuries were to UMASS players. There was no question that most of the injuries --and probably all of them-- were fake, and simply part of UMASS's game strategy to slow down LA Tech's offense. Some UMASS players laid on the field "injured" for 5-10 minutes, while their defensive playmates rested.

That means the game was "extended" about 40-45 min unnecessarily.

I would probably add one more twist: If the SAME player "goes down" with an injury twice in one game (meaning the game has to be stopped to cart his butt off), he should be forced to sit out the rest of the half.