College football will look a bit different in 2024 after the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved a rule change that will eliminate the clock stoppage after first downs the league has played with since 1968.
The clock will still stop in the last two minutes of a half.
The rule change is one of many that are coming to college football in hopes of speeding up the game and reducing play counts. The two other approved changes also help speed things up. Penalties at the end of the first and third quarters will be enforced in the next quarter instead of an untimed down, and the other prevents back-to-back timeouts during the same dead period.
Changes are being made in hopes of cutting down on league-wide injuries. The NCAA is moving to a 12-team playoff in 2024-25, and NCAA secretary-rules editor Steve Shaw says the clock rule should cut about 96 exposures over a regular season per player.
More rule changes could be on the way, too. Shaw described the new rules as a “conservative approach to begin the process of shortening games,” so this is just step one.
Major League Baseball and college baseball recently introduced a pitch clock to help speed up games, and the fans have reacted well to the changes. College football is hoping for a similar transition, but there will always be purists who think the game should remain untouched from how they watched it as a kid.
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