NCAA will reportedly change a college football rule that’s been in place for a half-century

With the intent of speeding up the game, the NCAA has made a change to a college football rule that’s been in place for over 50 years.

The saying goes that “old habits die hard,” but for Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher, he’ll need to kick his habit of eating a ton of game clock sooner rather than later.

According to a report from CBS Sports, the NCAA is set to make a significant rule change that has been in place for college football since 1968. In what has long differentiated the collegiate game from the NFL, the game clock would always continue to run following first downs. As of Friday, that no longer remains the case.

The details from CBS Sports were relayed as follows:

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 PROP is also expected to approve two other recommendations from the rules committee: teams be prohibited from calling consecutive timeouts and penalties at the end of the first and third quarter being enforced on the first play of the next quarter.

The NCAA’s decision comes with the purpose of trying to speed up the pace, lower the total volume of plays, and make the games run in less time overall. It comes at an interesting time following changes made by Major League Baseball, in which the MLB’s Competition Committee finally introduced the Pitch Clock, among other rule changes, to the majors.

Similarly, they did so with the intent of speeding up the pace of play and retaining an interest in the regular season games.

While these changes will sound like music to the ears of television networks and the avid viewer, they will also force coaches and play-callers to be better refined when it comes to clock management. And let’s be real, Jimbo has had his fair share of criticism when it comes to clock management in the closing moments of halves.

Nobody is perfect, and this is one facet of the game where Fisher can execute better.

These decisions further prove that the game of college football continues to evolve, hopefully for the better. Looking ahead, it will be key to observe whether these changes prove inconsequential in the long term, or whether they become a deciding factor in some closely contested matchups.

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