FanHouse Rule Changes

Holy hoodwink, Batman! Remember me?

From the venerable Sunday Morning Quarterback:

Make no mistake: fifteen extra seconds on the play clock is a dramatic, terrible change, and will fail miserably at its attempt to maintain plays and scoring at 2007 levels. Lengthening the play clock produces less plays, and therefore less scoring ...

...a conservative estimate - the number drops to 120 plays, 60 per team, a loss of something like three full possessions every game. If it allows enough of a slow down to average 35 seconds per play, the average drops to about 51 plays per team, almost a full 30 percent decline.

That's a staggering decline in actual football in favor of standing around (and commercials, which of course will not be cut), and also in favor of taking knees: 15 more seconds of standing around between every play means 45 extra seconds per three-down series if the clock is running, extending the amount of time that can reasonably be run off by kneel-downs from a little over a minute to a full two minutes. The committee should be devising rules that encourage last-second drama, not choke it out of existence

This is bad for college football. I stand with EDSBS, The Wizard of Odds, Get the Picture and others in opposing this specific piece of legislation that takes away from the college football experience instead of adding to it.

For the more active citizens among you, please take the following message from EDSBS to heart:

Previously at FanHouse
Rule Changes Proposed for College Football

When the NCAA announced its rule changes less than a week ago, it meant that kickoffs would be moved back five yards to the 30-yard line. That has given college coaches and programs little time to adjust. More recently Big 12 coaches were able to give some of their thoughts about the rule change and how it might impact the kicking game.

Kansas State anticipated the change, which gave their special teams time to adjust during the spring:

"We thought that was one (rule change) that might be made, so we've been practicing with the ball on the 30 all this spring," Kansas State coach Ron Prince said Monday during a Big 12 football coaches teleconference with the media to discuss spring practices.

"Looking at the NFL, it's going to be so hard to get touchbacks now. The kick is going to be driven so low in an effort to get it to the end zone, coverage teams won't really have a chance to go down and set a pattern."

The new rule could turn out to be a blessing for the Wildcats, as they led the nation in kickoff returns in 2006.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops worries about the health of his players:

""I think it's great," Stoops said. "But you worry about more opportunity for injury, because those are high-impact plays. Outside of that, we know it'll create more excitement."

Oklahoma State associate head coach Joe DeForest, who is in charge of the Cowboys' special teams, thinks it could change the make-up of special teams units:

"I think you're going to see more starters on the those units, covering kicks. And as far as the return game goes, it's exciting, because you know it'll open the game up. The glass is half empty and half full. It's a little scary if you have to coach both units."

Texas' coach Mack Brown was a bit more graphic in his reaction:

"If you ask our defensive coaches (about it), they throw up," Brown said. "If you ask our offensive coaches, they're pumped."

I think fans should be pumped about the changes too. Increasing the number of kickoff returns should lead to a higher number of game-changing plays, and it's hard not to get behind that.

The obvious: 3-2-5-e is D-E-D dead. The news may be a month old but I invoke that all readers must commence upon a happy dance in 3... 2... 1 ...

Happy Dance? Happy Dance. Ahhh, better now. Wha? Huh? Where was I? Oh yeah, rule changes.

The not so obvious: new rules are on the way.

The NCAA "Rules Oversight Panel", overstepping its presumed 'oversight' responsibilities, has finalized the new rules.

On Thursday, the rules oversight panel approved two major timing changes that would revert the rules to what they were in 2005 -- stopping the clock on possession changes and not starting it on kickoffs until the receiving team touches the ball. [snip]

While this year's changes likely mean games will again be longer, the panel approved several other measures intended to help keep game times closer to 3 hours.

Kickoffs will be made from the 30-yard line, like in the NFL, instead of the 35. That, Halpin said, should ensure more returns and shorter stoppages.

After media timeouts during televised games, teams will have less time to run plays. Previously, teams had a 25-second play clock; now it will be 15 seconds. Halpin said it could prevent the long stoppages when teams are merely simply trying to save time.

Recommended replay review procedures, however, are not changing.

One of the most time-consuming procedures, replay reviews, will not change. The football rules committee withdrew its proposal to impose a 2-minute limit, in part, because of the potential for technical difficulties.

All in all, not a bad day for the college football. Now let's pray to the football Gods for the return of some Desmond Howard/Rocket Ismail level kickoff returns in 2007. Praise be upon thee!