NCAA abandons stupid clock rules (updated)
College football scraps speed-up rule (Brian Davis, Dallas Morning News)
Instant replay won't see any major changes this fall, but the NCAA football rules committee went back to the drawing board in its attempt to shorten games.
Last year, the committee voted to start the game clock on the change of possession instead of waiting for the snap. The change shaved minutes off an average game. But Rule 3-2-5-e also meant an average of six fewer plays per game than the previous season.
Texas Tech coach Mike Leach said it was the "stupidest rule to come out in a significantly long time." A Web site even cropped up.
Mike Clark, the football rules committee chairman, announced a series of changes Wednesday that address dead time during a game while giving the offense more opportunities.
Starting this fall, the clock will begin on the snap — just as it did every year before 2006. Timeouts called by teams will be 30 seconds long instead of 65 seconds. The play clock will be only 15 seconds after a TV timeout.
[snip]
The NCAA will adopt a NFL style of timing methods for the play clock starting in 2008, the committee announced. The play clock will be 40 seconds and will start at the end of the previous play.
The rules changes re: the clock for the 2006 season were just mind-boggling in their stupidity. It's a little surprising that the NCAA actually admitted as much by switching back. It's less surprising that they have switched back for 2007 but will change yet again in 2008 (to NFL rules). Why not just change to those rules in 2007? (Probably because that would make way too much sense for the NCAA).
UPDATE: The AP reports that there is still a bit more hoop jumping required before the changes become official.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/14/07 15:19 | Sports | Technorati
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