Heading into the 2023 college football season, there was much discussion around how it felt to many like college football games were taking longer than ever. While there were good (and somewhat confusing) reasons for that, the answer was more about perception than reality.
With new clock rule changes in place last season, the average length of an FBS game was shortened by a few minutes as of the last known measurement. It was a move in the right direction but nothing that most fans would have noticed.
Friday, the NCAA Football Rules Committee proposed some new rules for the 2024 college football season, one of which was instituting an official two-minute warning in the second and fourth quarters. And while that addition might not extend the length of games by any discernable amount, it’s probably not what many fans want to hear given their ongoing concerns.
Right now, the specific way that commercial breaks occur during a college football game depends on the conference and broadcaster. Broadcasting partners either use a “3-4-3-4” strategy (three breaks in the first and third quarters, four in the second and fourth quarters) or a “4-4-4-4” strategy that includes breaks at the end of the first and third quarters. Some conferences would also let networks run “30-second floaters” during game stoppages.
The new recommendation “synchronizes all timing rules, such as 10-second runoffs and stopping the clock when a first down is gained in bounds, which coincides with the two-minute timeout.”
“The two-minute timeout will allow all end-of-half and end-of-game timing rules to be simplified and synch up with this timeout,” said Steve Shaw, NCAA secretary-rules editor. “This will also help broadcast partners to avoid back-to-back media timeouts.”
The proposals still need to be approved by the Playing Rules Oversight Panel, which is expected to happen. They will convene in April.
While the proposed change could potentially prevent some back-to-back media timeouts, which would lessen the annoyance for viewers, it’s unlikely to have too much of an impact on the length of a game broadcast. If you already think college football broadcasts are too long, don’t expect any change here.
If anything, it will align your viewing experience with the NFL, where viewers are very accustomed to the two-minute warning at this point. However, not everyone sees that as a good thing.
The two-minute warning piece sucks so bad. They’re trying to treat this sport like an NFL developmental league and make it identical.
So many of these rule changes around the clock are going to work to eliminate the diversity of play style that makes college football great https://t.co/SZ9fs6coTl
— B1G_Ryan (@B1G_Ryan) March 1, 2024
[NCAA, The Athletic]
