I think it's a great idea to tighten up the game. The American attention span has gotten shorter as games have gotten longer. Of course when you're at the game it's the TV timeouts that are most annoying.
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--Dooley: One way to reduce length of college football games
Published: Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 5:03 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 5:03 p.m.
In the past 10 years, the time of the average college game has increased by 20 minutes. It has increased by seven minutes per game in the last four.
This is not exactly breaking news here, but I love college football. I can't get enough of it and my summers are spent looking forlornly into the gloaming waiting for another miserable offseason to end.
So you would think that when all this talk cropped up last week about shortening the college game, I'd have been appalled. I want multiple overtimes. I want games to bleed into each other without the incessant pregame chattering about keys to the game.
I want more football, not less.
Of course, there is the other side, which is this nasty little monkey called deadline. And there is also this — the quicker the games I am covering, the quicker I get home to the reclining couch and get to watch multiple TVs.
All of this aside, when you have a doctorate in football (I got it online … it says), you have to step away from your subjective feelings and study a situation like this. The national title game went four hours, eight minutes, which would even be too long for a massage from Scarlett Johansson.
The conference commissioners, according to ESPN's Brett McMurphy, are the ones who are pushing for ways to change our games because they want to be out in front of the lengthening before it gets unbearably long.
I don't hear a lot from fans, but it's possible that one reason for declining attendance in the sport is the length of the games.
The commissioners, in this case, are basically acting as guardians of the game in their efforts to find ways to make the game shorter.
Look, we all know that the NFL is strategically packaged in three-hour blocks so that games don't run into each other and that the NFL is the king in this country. We don't want college football to be just like the NFL, but there are some answers to shortening the time of the games that would not be too intrusive.
In the past 10 years, the time of the average college game has increased by 20 minutes. It has increased by seven minutes per game in the last four.
I think I know why.
While there are more commercials these days, we all know that decreasing commercial time is not a viable answer. Yes, ESPN and CBS, we'd like you to give us less money.
The answer lies in the first down.
College football simply needs to get rid of its antiquated rule of stopping the clock on every first down. The last two minutes? No problem. But the game has outgrown a rule that was instituted in 1970 so that the chain gangs could keep up.
Heck, we've advanced so far that they had a digital down marker in the SEC Championship Game. Are the NFL chain crews that much more sophisticated that they don't need the clock to stop? I think not.
Guess who led the NCAA in first downs per game last year? That would be Texas Tech. Guess who led the NCAA with the longest games last year at an average of 3:48. Yep, the Red Raiders.
In 2006, Houston led the nation in first downs with 311. In 2016, there were 22 teams who had more. As offenses have gotten faster and created more first downs, there have been more stoppages in games and that has contributed to the length of games.
First down stoppages are not the only problem, but they are the most solvable problem.
I went back and looked at a handful of first-down plays in Florida's Outback Bowl win over Iowa. Almost every first down resulted in the clock stopping for a minimum of 10 seconds.
Florida, for the season, averaged right on the mark for game times with 3:24 per game. UF's longest game was a 3:46 nightmare at Tennessee. Let's just take that game as an example of how to shorten the times of the games.
There were 39 first downs when the Gators and Vols met. None of them came in the last two minutes of either half. So without clock stoppage for first downs, the game would have been trimmed by 6½ minutes. It still would have been long, but not as long.
There have been other suggestions. One is to trim halftime. College football's is 20 minutes compared to the NFL's 12. But with all of the emphasis on safety, do we really want to cut back the down time between halves?
Besides, halftime shows by the band are a part of the fabric of the game.
Certainly, there has to be a way to streamline the replay review system. I'd be fine with going to the NFL system (originally devised by the USFL) of requiring challenges instead of making each play open for review. I also believe that if the replay official or the centralized crews don't see an obvious mistake within the first 60 seconds, let it go.
But let's start with the first downs and see where that takes us. Hopefully, it takes us home earlier.
Contact Pat Dooley at 352-374-5053 or at pat.dooley@gvillesun.com. And follow at Twitter.com/Pat_Dooley.
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