This is an article about football, so why is there a baseball player in the cover photo? You might notice the runner is on second base. That’s a part of this discussion.
You might be getting used to the most conspicuous 2020 change in Major League Baseball’s in-game rules. In extra innings, every half-inning begins with a runner on second base, the point being to limit the length of the game. It’s not normal baseball. It’s not authentic baseball. It’s not baseball the way the game was meant to be played.
If it was a permanent rule, it would be a joke and a disgrace…
… but it’s not permanent. It’s just for 2020. It is just for “pandemic baseball,” not normal baseball.
In “pandemic baseball,” the goal isn’t just to play game, but to maximize safety for the athletes. That means not playing 15 or more innings. That means not playing six hours. Get the game done in 10 or 11 innings at most. Get tested. Go to the hotel. Sleep. Stay healthy. Come back the next day. Finish the season safely. Find a vaccine in the offseason. Come back with real baseball in 2021. That’s the plan.
Pandemic baseball is not normal baseball. It is a temporary alteration designed for abnormal circumstances which do not point to permanent changes. Its priority is shortening games in accordance with the need to increase player safety.
Rule changes to games in a pandemic can’t guarantee player safety — let’s make that much clear — but they can surely improve the odds. That should be done at every opportunity.
So, with MLB’s extra-innings runner-at-second rule in mind, let’s ask a simple but important question: Why aren’t we discussing similarly temporary pandemic-based rule changes in college football?
The most obvious rule change of all — something which already should have been approved for this season’s pandemic-based circumstances — hasn’t been put in place. I haven’t even seen much discussion of it in recent months.
A total of 11 different rule changes were put in place for the coming season several months ago. None of them included the most obvious “pandemic football” rule change in the college game: a running clock after all first downs.
The best thing about this rule change is that it’s not gimmicky the way MLB’s extra-inning runner-on-second rule change is. The NFL already has a running clock on first downs. If ever there was a year to trial a running clock on first downs, without committing to a long-term change, this is certainly it.
If this rule change was made, athletes and coaches would know that games would be shortened in terms of actual time spent on the field — maybe closer to three hours, down from the current three and a half hours — and in the equally crucial statistic of snaps per game.
Yes, I do know that merely playing this season is a challenge, and that there are a lot of things for college football power brokers to worry about.
Even then, however: This is a layup. It’s such an obvious change to make this year… and it hasn’t been made.
That’s a lack of leadership.
Yup — sounds exactly like college football to me.