College football games have become painfully long

[superfan01]

Am I the only one who feels this has gotten completely out of hand.

Games are now 3.5 to 4 hours. NFL games are routinely 30 to 40 minutes shorter. It's painful to watch and sit through and is ruining college football and the fan experience.

They need to remove the stoping the clock after every first down. Maybe the last 2 minutes of each half keep this rule in effect but the rest of the game they can get rid of this rule.

Also they need to shorten halftime. Should go to 12 minutes like the NFL.

And the constant reviewing of plays is awful. In the ole miss Albania game they reviewed 3 straight plays when ole miss had the ball 1st and goal on the 1

 

[RUskoolie]

They need to stop scheduling out of conference opponents like Albania IMO...

 

[RU at the shore]

Agree x 100. Being in the stadium today was brutal towards the end

 

[RUfromSoCal?]

To be fair.........

it was A LAH BAMAH

you review plays to give the appearance of fairness......... as long as Alabama wins...

 

[LevaosLectures]

Spot on. Getting back to my car after 4 pm for a Nooner is ridiculous

 

[Rutgers25]

Am I the only one who feels this has gotten completely out of hand.

Games are now 3.5 to 4 hours. NFL games are routinely 30 to 40 minutes shorter. It's painful to watch and sit through and is ruining college football and the fan experience.

They need to remove the stoping the clock after every first down. Maybe the last 2 minutes of each half keep this rule in effect but the rest of the game they can get rid of this rule.

Also they need to shorten halftime. Should go to 12 minutes like the NFL.

And the constant reviewing of plays is awful. In the ole miss Albania game they reviewed 3 straight plays when ole miss had the ball 1st and goal on the 1

I was thinking the same thing today. 3 hours should be the norm and 3.5 hours should be considered abnormally long. it's a huge problem. The TV timeouts are way too frequent and long

 

[Caliknight]

Too many stops.

Olympic hoops was so refreshing. Two hours done. Soccer is similar.

 

[bac2therac]

tv timeouts seem longer...get used to it..its a money grab for everyone including the schools

 

[soundcrib]

Clock stopping after 1st downs should be abolished.

 

[rube1859]

They need to stop scheduling out of conference opponents like Albania IMO...

Weird mention of Albania (the actual country in Europe) ...I was there last weekend hence why I missed the Howard game. Could hardly find any info on American football...it was so depressing.

 

[Abro1975]

DVR for an hour or 2 after kickoff and Fast forward thru the time stoppages.

PS- The New Mexico game is now up on Watch ESPN APP and you can use the FF, Slo Mo and pause features to catch the action you are interested in.

 

[17Q66]

tv timeouts seem longer...get used to it..its a money grab for everyone including the schools

Everyone except the student athletes.

 

[DHajekRC84]

Clock stopping after 1st downs should be abolished.

it is not this rule as that had been in place LOOOOONG before these marathons came into being. it is TV and the replays. Clock only stops until the set the ball. it is a short moment and what makes the college game a bit more unique end game.

I will agree with the OP though..and the main reason my wife will never ever attend a college game.

 

[RU Husky]

and you yell at the students for leaving early

 

[higgins3]

It is funny you folks post this. I too felt the game was super long yesterday. I will not be heading back to many more. It seemed to drone on at times. Just too long.

Basketball is the sport, and the RAC is the place. Smell ya, football.

 

[Abro1975]

There does seem to be a 2 or 3 minute media break after every punt, between 1 & 2 and 3%4 qtrs, and at other times.
I guess that's the tradeoff for being able to watch almost every D1 game on TV/computer or other device for free or for relatively inexpensively..

 

[runroyrun]

Some health issues here. Haven't gone to a game in five years. Go to plenty of hoops games.

 

[MikeR0102]

A few years ago they changed a lot of the clock rules, I wanna saw 2006, and the games were a lot shorter, a lot less plays, but they got rid of most of the rule changes after a year or two.

 

[Plum Street]

It's the tv timeouts that is the killer . NFL games are bad too .

 

[koleszar]

Clock stopping after 1st downs should be abolished.

You can't penalize a team for old slow white guys running down the sidelines with poles in their hands and a chain connecting them. This clock stoppage needs to stay.

 

[KnightsofChrome]

OP, you might want to change your handle, from "Superfan" to Endgame. It would probably suit you better.

 

[superfan01]

It's the tv timeouts that is the killer . NFL games are bad too .

Yeah but NFL games are 30 minutes on average shorter

 

[waretown]

They need to stop scheduling out of conference opponents like Albania IMO...

do thy travel well?

 

[waretown]

There does seem to be a 2 or 3 minute media break after every punt, between 1 & 2 and 3%4 qtrs, and at other times.
I guess that's the tradeoff for being able to watch almost every D1 game on TV/computer or other device for free or for relatively inexpensively..

it's all about $$$$$$$$

 

[ChasRC69]

You can't penalize a team for old slow white guys running down the sidelines with poles in their hands and a chain connecting them. This clock stoppage needs to stay.

Plus, if you want to tape the game to watch later, it has to be on TV. If it's on TV, you have to put up with the ridiculously long TV times out. There were plenty of times in Saturday's game where the teams were ready to play, but that freakin' official was standing on the field until all the commercials were done. If the game is on any of the ESPN channels, it's worse.

 

[RUhasarrived]

I'm just the opposite.I don't like the soccer timing we have now,with the clock running after the ball is set on out of bounds running plays.If we had today's rules in 1992,we would have run out of time against Va.Tech.

 

[RU848789]

Yep, too long. If there are ~30 first downs per game and it takes 10 seconds to reset the chains (not sure, just guessing - probably a little less), that would be 5 extra minutes of game time. That, plus a few minutes of extra replays would account for the 8 minute difference in college (gametime of 3 hours, 20 minutes on average) and pro (3 hours, 12 minutes) games.

I would only keep the clock stopping after a first down in the last 3 minutes of each half (that's 10% of the game, which, in theory, would save 4:30 seconds, if my 5 min estimate is correct), as I do like the ability for a team to have a great drive with not much clock left.

And personally, I'd abolish all replays, which would save a lot of time. I realize I'm in the minority on that opinion, but I hate what it does to the flow of a game and I'm ok to live with a few mistakes - we got by fine with them for decades.

 

[zappaa]

The announcement of "this is a 30 second time out" should not be reason to rejoice....but the way it is now, it is.

 

[RUInsanity]

Just wondering if people are really that naive? The NFL instituted rules to shorten the game by stopping the clock only for the ball reset on out of bounds plays except at the end of the halves. It did not shorten the overall game. The reason why is that the networks control the broadcast. They pay a lot of money for the rights and their aim is to full in as many ads/TV time outs as possible in order to make $$$$.

If the actual game on the field is shortened through rule changes such as keeping the clock running after first downs.....expect the networks to fill that extra time with more ads.

 

[miketd1]

Hurry up offense leads to a lot of possessions. And a lot of 3 & outs = commercial break.

Lots of passing = lots of clock stoppage on incomplete passes.

Increased scoring = more commercials.

Combine that with DVR-proof programming & it's just a perfect storm for cable tv network$.

 

[retired711]

It seems to me that *all* organized sports have slowed down over the years. I think most of it is ads. Sports are one of the few programs that most all people watch live, and so the advertisers load them up with ads.

 

[soundcrib]

You can't penalize a team for old slow white guys running down the sidelines with poles in their hands and a chain connecting them. This clock stoppage needs to stay.

Aren't they old and white in the NFL too?

 

[LotusAggressor]

The officials huddling for 5 minutes after every penalty isn't helping.

 

[TM514]

Yes, the reason for the longer games is Mehninger and Ash's spread offense. No huddle, and snapping the ball with 20 seconds left on play clock. Its a garbage offense "chuck and duck"

 

[RUBand]

Am I the only one who feels this has gotten completely out of hand.

Games are now 3.5 to 4 hours. NFL games are routinely 30 to 40 minutes shorter. It's painful to watch and sit through and is ruining college football and the fan experience.

They need to remove the stoping the clock after every first down. Maybe the last 2 minutes of each half keep this rule in effect but the rest of the game they can get rid of this rule.

Also they need to shorten halftime. Should go to 12 minutes like the NFL.

And the constant reviewing of plays is awful. In the ole miss Albania game they reviewed 3 straight plays when ole miss had the ball 1st and goal on the 1

I agree 100%, and give my ticket to my brothers gf. For a night game, they leave around 4, and get back around midnight, and we live 6 miles from campus

 

[zappaa]

You can't penalize a team for old slow white guys running down the sidelines with poles in their hands and a chain connecting them. This clock stoppage needs to stay.

Sick racist you are

 

[MozRU]

No one is thinking about the players. There has to be long term reprocussions to put that kin6f of stress on your organs and for exerting ones' heart for 4 straight hours?????

 

[herdof3]

They have been 3:30 - 3:45 for a long time.

 

[koleszar]

Sick racist you are

I'm one of them, just forgot to add the fat part.:D

 

[rurichdog]

TV timeouts and "the previous play is under review..." are killers. TV timeouts you can't really get around. There is where the big money for the conferences is coming from. All the replays though, come on. How many times does a close play happen, everyone jogs to the line of scrimmage, QB starts calling signals, and then the whistle blows for a replay? Then 2-4 minutes of watching 5 seconds of action over & over under the hood, only to say "the play stands". No sh*t, let's play football.