Change has come to college football, and it will be fascinating to see how different the sport becomes as a result.
College football has set itself apart from the NFL for decades by stopping the clock on all first downs. Now, that rule will be largely — though not fully — eliminated.
Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports broke the story, writing the following:
“The NCAA is expected to approve today rules changes proposed earlier this year that will allow the clock to run after first downs are achieved in all divisions except Division III, CBS Sports has learned. The clock will continue to stop after first downs during the final two minutes of each half.
“The approval will come from the Playing Rules Oversight Panel (PROP) that annually vets rules changes as proposed by the NCAA Football Rules Committee, which made this recommendation in March.”
The obvious immediate result of this change is that there will be fewer plays per game. That’s fewer snaps for offenses, and fewer chances to use tempo to wear out a defense. It also means that if a team can churn out lots of first downs on the ground, it can drain even more clock for the same amount of plays and yardage.
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