The NCAA playing rules oversight panel approved 3 major rule changes for the upcoming 2023 season.
All 3 of them aim to address the growing length of college football games which have traditionally taken around 3 and a half hours from start to finish.
By contrast NFL games take around 3 hours, NBA games take a little over 2 hours, and even the MLB has recently taken drastic steps to shorten the length of their games.
Clock Stoppage After 1st Downs
The first major NCAA Football rule change is the game clock will now continuously run after first downs with the only exception being within the last 2 minutes of each half.
Compare that to the past where the clock would stop after every first down regardless of when the first down occurred.
Most analysts project that this will result in around 7 fewer plays per game.
Consecutive Timeouts
The second rule change is that teams will no longer be able to take consecutive time outs. Once a timeout is taken, they will have to run a play before they can take another.
This is another rule change that largely aligns with the rules in the NFL where teams also aren’t allowed to take consecutive time outs.
The place where this will likely save the most time is at the end of a half or the end of a game where a coach might waste 2 or 3 consecutive timeouts to try to “ice” the opposing team’s kicker.
This rule change likely won’t save too much time on average but it still serves a useful purpose. No one wants to sit around waiting for 5-10 minutes at the end of a half/game while a coach burns through all his time outs.
Untimed Downs
The third rule change is there will no longer be an untimed down at the end of the 1st or 3rd quarters if a penalty occurs on the final play of that quarter.
They will instead just pick up where they left off at the beginning of the 2nd/4th quarters.
If a penalty occurs at the end of the 2nd or 4th quarters, teams will still get an untimed down.
Our Expectations
We fully expect these rule changes to be carried forward to future seasons meaning that we expect them to be reflected in EA’s college football game with an expected release date of July 2024.
The rule change regarding no more clock stoppage after first downs (except in limited situations) actually aligns perfectly with some of the subtleties of the Madden NFL football franchise.
And remember, EA Sports College Football 25 is using the same game engine as Madden.
Madden implements an “accelerated clock” which runs all game except in the last 2 minutes of each half. That aligns perfectly with the new NCAA Football rules making it much easier for EA to use the system they already have in place.
Coming In 2024
The expanded College Football playoff will be implemented in the 2024 season. That means the 12 team college football playoff will be in EA Sports College Football 25.
These are dumb changes that no one wanted. One of the best parts about college football was that the clock stopped after every first down. It made things more exciting