Buh-Bye To The Speed-Up Rules

[DKW 86 7,426]

http://www.collegefootballtalk.com/rumormill.htm

Buh-Bye To The Speed-Up Rules

Several NCAA head honchos tell CFT that the new speed-up rules introduced this year will most likely go the same way as the graduate transfer rule -- into the poop can for the 2007 NCAA D-I season.

As another example of ADs and coaches wanting something without really understanding what the fu-- its about, the rule will be discussed by the rules committee after the season and most likely be abolished in early 2007.

The new rule that has most coaches upset: During a change in possession, the official usually takes about 14 seconds to get the ball in position so the team on offense can run its first play. Under the old rules, the game clock wouldn't start until after the first snap. Now, the clock starts immediately after the ball is marked ready for play.

Per Georgia Coach Mark Richt, whose offensive plays in the first two weeks are slightly down from a year ago (from 62.9 to 56.5 a game): "There are just less plays per game. I don't see the point in that. To cut down the number of plays in a college football game is not a good thing. A true fan wants to see them play."

Georgia Tech has averaged 60 offensive plays in its first two games after running 73 a contest this time a year ago. Still, coach Chan Gailey insists he hasn't missed them.

"I don't think anybody's missed them," Gailey said. "If it's sped up the game, then it's good. In two years, nobody will pay attention to it."

Coaches predicted the new rules would take at least 10 to 15 plays out of each game, and they were right. A year ago, there were about 141 offensive plays, or 70 per team, in an average game. Per the Atlanta Journal Constitution, this season ACC teams are averaging 63 offensive plays while SEC teams are down to 59.4, according to a Journal-Constitution analysis.

On a national scale, after the first 2 games of the season for all teams, comparing the first two weeks of last season vs. this season, when college football's new time-saving rules went into effect:

Year....Plays/game....Time

2005....166.7 ........3:20

2006....152.1 ........3:06

"I don't like the rule, and I don't think it was necessary," Purdue coach Joe Tiller said. "We've eliminated a lot of plays and made the game shorter, but I just don't think the game is as entertaining as it was a year ago."

The issue of the length of games, SEC commissioner Mike Slive said, was moved "to the front burner" after the NCAA heard from administrators and fans that too many contests were lasting close to four hours.

Asking television networks to take fewer media timeouts wasn't an option, given the millions they pay for broadcast rights. Still, Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer believes TV was a factor in the change.

"The intent of the rule, I suppose, was around managing the number of minutes and hours of the game," Fulmer said. "But the truth is that television wanted [games] shorter so they could get more games in and start the games on time."

Not so, said Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, who sits on the NCAA football rules committee, which proposed the new measures. The 13-member committee is made up of seven head coaches and six administrators. Only one, Tuberville, is a Division I-A head coach.

"The committee's concern was for the student-athletes and the fans," Tuberville said. "Players are now playing 12 regular-season games instead of 11, and so it made sense to keep them on the field for fewer plays per game."

Tuberville said the committee will re-examine the issue when it meets in February.

"If we're just talking about five, six, seven or eight plays, I think that is something we can live with," Tuberville said. "But if we're affecting 30 to 40 plays a game, that was never the intent of the rule. We'll gather all the data and look at it again next February. If we have to make some changes, we will."

Miami coach Larry Coker got an early, painful lesson in how the new rules intended to shorten games are going to do exactly that.

On Sept. 4, the Hurricanes trailed Florida State 13-10 with 2:19 left. The Seminoles had just taken possession. Before FSU ran its first play, Coker had to burn a timeout.

"Instead of making them run a play and then calling the timeout, we had to call it right away," Coker said. "That cost us some time."

Miami stuffed three straight FSU runs and used all of its timeouts, but there was only 1:14 left when Miami got the ball back. The Hurricanes lost 13-10.

[TigerOne 1,147]

and well it should, I'm really surprised CTT went along, I guess coming from the defensive side it looked good on paper. Hopefully it won't bite us this year, like in the LSU game.

[bigsixfive 327]

The rule shouldn't really bite anyone. If you take care of business, you don't have to worry about the clock so much. I do not like how the clock runs on change of posession, I think that's dumb. That basically means the winning team just turns the ball over within the last two minutes and the game is over. I would like to see them change that aspect, but leave the others alone. I never really understood why the clock stops on a first down, either. Stop it to move the chains, then restart it when the ball is set.

Ultimately, if the networks wanted to put more games on TV, they'd reduce the number of commercials per game to squeak in 3 games instead of two. The commercials in the 3rd game would more than make up for the ones missed in the previous games. If they ran two pillow fights back to back with very few commercials, they could load the 3rd, premier game with them and probably make more money.

They could also do like NBC with NASCAR. Just take 5 minute breaks during the action. "Welcome back. Well Benny, it was quite active during the break. We had 4 lead changes and a wreck that took out the leader. Now lets take a quick break." I can see Dirk Turdstreet doing that this weekend in the USC UN game. "USC up by 2. UN with the ball and drving hard with 1:30 left... time for a break.........................And we're back. Wow, we just had an amazing finish here at the Coloseum! USC stopped UN at the 35 yard line, giving enough time for Bootylicious to throw one more deep ball for a TD! USC wins by 9! They are the best team in the history of college football!"

[CircleDrill 178]

I applaud this if it happens. Nobody should have to go to a game where it feels like you get 30 seconds of football for every 5 minutes of commercials like the Miss State game did.