Ken Murray/Icon Sportswire via Getty ImagesThe NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel has approved three rules changes in college football aimed at improving the pace of play and reducing the number of plays per game.
Per The Athletic's Nicole Auerbach, the approved changes that will go into effect next season include a running clock after first downs (except for the last two minutes of each half), banning the use of consecutive timeouts by a team and carrying a foul over to the second and fourth quarters instead of playing an untimed down.
The NCAA Football Rules Committee officially proposed the changes last month at a meeting in Indianapolis.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, who serves as co-chair on the committee, explained the reasoning behind the proposed change to a running clock: "This rule change is a small step intended to reduce the overall game time and will give us some time to review the impact of the change."
Steve Shaw, NCAA football secretary rules-editor and officials coordinator, told ESPN's Heather Dinich in February that college football games over the past three seasons have averaged 180 plays and lasted three hours, 21 minutes.
Auerbach noted there were an average of 155 plays in an NFL game during the 2022 season and each game took around three hours, 10 minutes to complete.
The running clock will be the biggest change. College football rules have included a clock-stoppage to set the ball and line up the chains after every first down since 1968. The clock doesn't start running again until the referee signals for play to resume.
Teams will still be able to take advantage of the first-down clock stoppage at the end of each half, but games should have much better flow with time continuing to run outside of those two brief periods.
In addition to improving game flow, fewer plays per game should also help reduce the risk of player injuries.
None of these changes should significantly impact the overall quality of games. Tulane athletic director Troy Dannen told Auerbach the changes might affect seven to 10 plays per game.
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