College Football Leaders Have Found Four Ways To Shorten Games, Finally

We all know how long college football games can be, even without the lengthy television commercials and injury timeouts. Over the years it feels as if we are regularly getting near the four-hour window in terms of time at a game, but it appears as if that could soon be changing.

According to a report, College Football leaders have been looking into ways to speed-up the game, which doesn't include taking away advertising. Unfortunately, the days are getting longer for some fans attending games and the television remote makes it easier to change the channel.

The first proposal would be to eliminate teams from calling consecutive timeouts. This usually comes into play when an opposing team is trying to ice the kicker, or they completely screw up their personnel coming out of a timeout. The second proposal is the elimination of 'dead ball' plays, which means a penalty would not garner a non-timed down at the end of the first or third quarter.

Third Proposal Has Gained The Most Interest, Running Clock

Now, both of these would certainly help, but it's the third proposal that has college football fans rejoicing.

The committee has proposed that after a team picks-up a first down, the clock would continue to run, only stopping inside 2-minutes of a half. So, this means that college football leaders have looked at the NFL model and think it will help them with their game times.

The only proposal that is not gaining much traction would be the clock starting after an incomplete pass, once the ball is spotted again. Yea, I don't particularly like this one at all, considering there's a reason why quarterbacks spike the ball or throw it out of bounds. Just stick with the third proposal of spending up the game with the running clock after a first down.

College football players like former Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker could soon play in shorter games. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images).

According to the report, having a running clock after first downs could eliminate up to nine plays per game. If you thought some coaches were running a fast offense now, these new rule changes could see coaches calling plays faster than 'The Flash'.

I can't imagine an offense called by Josh Heupel getting faster, but this would present him a new challenge. The group proposing these new ideas is made up of 12 college football commissioners, and they'll be voting on the proposed changes within the next few weeks.

It should be noted that the average time for an FBS football game last fall was 3 hours and 21 minutes, according to the committee. This was a three-minute increase from the previous season, which isn't earth-shattering.

One thing to remember here during these discussions is that television networks are still going to get their breaks. We can try to change all the rules when it comes to game times, but those ad-revenue folks are going to get theirs.