NCAA Proposes New Clock Related Rules

While most college football fans will tell you there's nothing wrong with the game they have so much passion for at all (except for that troublesome little issue regarding the BCS and the lack of a college football playoff), the NCAA seems to think there is a problem with the way games are currently being timed.

The governing body has been experimenting with different rules changes in the past couple years including a previous change that made teams rush their offenses out on the field after a change of possession that was revoked, and now they are apparently at it again.

Most of these new rules are aimed doing exactly what that past change was supposed to do when it was passed: speeding up the game. The college game has been called a little too slow by some observers due to the rule that the clock stops after a made first down in each game.

All proposals have to pass through the NCAA's Playing Rules Oversight Panel before being instituted in college football games.

Proposed new rules by the NCAA for college football include a 40-second clock to start play after the previous play ends, eliminating warnings for sideline problems, getting rid of the 5-yard face mask penalty for incidental contact (which is pretty prevalent), changing the chop block rule to make it a little easier to understand and enforce for the referees, and giving the receiving team the option of taking the ball at their own 40-yard line after a kick-off out-of-bounds.

The first rule, the 40-second clock after a play, is 15 seconds more than the current 25-second clock. The 25-second clock will still be used after time out situations. While the clock is longer, the ability to run a little more clock than usual teams could be granted by the 40-second rule will allow them to burn more clock and could result in a shorter overall game time.