Could football ever go to a timeout format like basketball?

[OhioLion]

Basketball has a TV time out every 4 minutes on stopped play.
To speed up football and get free from the ton of TO’s early in the game and third quarter, could football go every 4 minutes?
First change of possession after 11-minute mark, same at 7:00 and 3:00.
One downside that comes to mind early is defense gets a turnover to change momentum then team has to wait to go on offense.
Just a thinking on a slow Sunday afternoon.

OL

 

[djr4rebs]

If college wanted to speed the game up, go to NFL clock rules. Or, even further, quit stopping the clock outside of a team called time out, turnover, or scoring play. Out of bounds, incompletions, it's unnecessary delays.

 

[OhioLion]

Sorry, djr, I don’t like the idea of making the college game more like pro ball. In my opinion, there are way way way too many commercial timeouts in CFB.
Eliminate those and limit each TV timeout to 3:00, and the game will be over in 3 - 3 1/2 hours, IMO.

OL

 

[djr4rebs]

Sorry, djr, I don’t like the idea of making the college game more like pro ball. In my opinion, there are way way way too many commercial timeouts in CFB.
Eliminate those and limit each TV timeout to 3:00, and the game will be over in 3 - 3 1/2 hours, IMO.

OL

That's why I said if.

Myself, I'm alright with it the way it is. I don't pay attention to it. I watch the games I want regardless of how long it takes. It's football Saturday. My biggest complaint is nobody starts at 1030. Waiting til noon some days is too long.

 

[RGWhirly]

With college football one of the problems besides the number of tv timeouts is the damn length of them.

 

[Chickenman Testa]

I think the last sport you want to take cues from as far as timeout rules is college basketball

 

[djr4rebs]

That isn’t “speeding up the game” at all.
Does NOTHING to speed up the game.

That is SHORTENING the game..... which is an entirely different thing (while maintaining the same - or, in the case of the NFL, adding to the number of pauses that slow down the game)

20 second play clock between plays.

 

[Madsol]

I really don't know anything about advertising but I've always wondered why advertisers wouldn't push for inserting 30-second commercials in the normal game stoppages. Following a punt, a quick 30-second commercial. Following a turnover, another one. After a score, maybe 2 or 3 30-second commercials. Would have virtually no impact on the flow of the game. Plus, I would have to think more people would see the commercials. As it is, everyone who watches football knows that when they go to commercial, it's at least 3, maybe 4 minutes. So you're going to the bathroom, getting a snack, flipping to other games. Pretty much anything but watching the commercials. And if you have DVRed the game, you're just fast forwarding through the commercials. If they inserted 30-second commercials here and there and you're watching a DVR, you might be less inclined to skip through the commercial for fear of fast forwarding too far and missing some of the game. Or you might think, "heck, it's only 30 seconds, I'll just watch it." Gotta believe someone has thought about this and there's a reason they don't do it.

 

[PS4814]

Sorry, djr, I don’t like the idea of making the college game more like pro ball. In my opinion, there are way way way too many commercial timeouts in CFB.
Eliminate those and limit each TV timeout to 3:00, and the game will be over in 3 - 3 1/2 hours, IMO.

OL

With college football one of the problems besides the number of tv timeouts is the damn length of them.

If soccer can be a 90+ minute game with no commercials during an entire 45 minute half those in charge of tv for football could figure it out too if they wanted.

With technology these days they should superimpose ads on the open areas of the field. Or how about making the large white area between the 25 yard lines right off the field into an area that ads are broadcasted on. Maybe bracket the screen and put ads there, I don't know but there are many places ads could be placed which would eliminate the need for commercial breaks. Shortening TO's, quicker play clock, etc. change the game and I'm against that b/c it's not the game that's causing games to drag out to 4 hours - it's the damned TV timeouts.

 

[djr4rebs]

That would speed up the game.... but I'm not sure if people would want to see that (I know a lot of coaches - especially Nick Saban - wouldn't)... who knows.

(FWIW, It wouldn't make games "shorter" vav total time from Kick-Off to final whistle..... but that doesn't mean it couldn't be a good thing)

We would have to ask him what he actually meant, but I think the OP was more concerned with shortening the game's run times even though he wrote it as "speed up the game".

Saban was very anti speeding up the game when he lost a few games to Auburn, Ole Miss, and the Manziel-led Aggies. It seemed his griping led to a referee holding up the C/QB on substitutions.

 

[WDLion]

20 second play clock between plays.

So they stop the clock 20 times a game for play clock penalties.

 

[WDLion]

Basketball has a TV time out every 4 minutes on stopped play.
To speed up football and get free from the ton of TO’s early in the game and third quarter, could football go every 4 minutes?
First change of possession after 11-minute mark, same at 7:00 and 3:00.
One downside that comes to mind early is defense gets a turnover to change momentum then team has to wait to go on offense.
Just a thinking on a slow Sunday afternoon.

OL

The players probably are thankful for the commercial breaks.

 

[MJG-90]

20 second play clock between plays.

This would make football insanely more watchable. But the last thing they want is more plays. More plays equals more blows to the head, more injuries. And running plays so quickly means more guys are tired which would lead to even more injuries.

Although it may also lead to smaller guys in the trenches. So maybe it actually would have the opposite effect. Interesting.

But as norm says, it won't make the actual game any shorter. It might make it longer -- more plays, more incomplete passes, more stopped clocked.

 

[psugisher]

I really don't know anything about advertising but I've always wondered why advertisers wouldn't push for inserting 30-second commercials in the normal game stoppages. Following a punt, a quick 30-second commercial. Following a turnover, another one. After a score, maybe 2 or 3 30-second commercials. Would have virtually no impact on the flow of the game. Plus, I would have to think more people would see the commercials. As it is, everyone who watches football knows that when they go to commercial, it's at least 3, maybe 4 minutes. So you're going to the bathroom, getting a snack, flipping to other games. Pretty much anything but watching the commercials. And if you have DVRed the game, you're just fast forwarding through the commercials. If they inserted 30-second commercials here and there and you're watching a DVR, you might be less inclined to skip through the commercial for fear of fast forwarding too far and missing some of the game. Or you might think, "heck, it's only 30 seconds, I'll just watch it." Gotta believe someone has thought about this and there's a reason they don't do it.

There are so many natural breaks in football that they could easily do this. The commercial timeouts are unbearable and break up the flow of the game. I know they need the commercial breaks but tv is the reason the games are long, not the college football rules.

 

[Howie'81]

If college wanted to speed the game up, go to NFL clock rules. Or, even further, quit stopping the clock outside of a team called time out, turnover, or scoring play. Out of bounds, incompletions, it's unnecessary delays.

I DESPISE the NFL clock rules. Hate 'em.

 

[Obliviax]

I really don't know anything about advertising but I've always wondered why advertisers wouldn't push for inserting 30-second commercials in the normal game stoppages. Following a punt, a quick 30-second commercial. Following a turnover, another one. After a score, maybe 2 or 3 30-second commercials. Would have virtually no impact on the flow of the game. Plus, I would have to think more people would see the commercials. As it is, everyone who watches football knows that when they go to commercial, it's at least 3, maybe 4 minutes. So you're going to the bathroom, getting a snack, flipping to other games. Pretty much anything but watching the commercials. And if you have DVRed the game, you're just fast forwarding through the commercials. If they inserted 30-second commercials here and there and you're watching a DVR, you might be less inclined to skip through the commercial for fear of fast forwarding too far and missing some of the game. Or you might think, "heck, it's only 30 seconds, I'll just watch it." Gotta believe someone has thought about this and there's a reason they don't do it.

Good question. It would seem to be the future. You now see this on Nascar and golf

 

[djr4rebs]

This would make football insanely more watchable. But the last thing they want is more plays. More plays equals more blows to the head, more injuries. And running plays so quickly means more guys are tired which would lead to even more injuries.

Although it may also lead to smaller guys in the trenches. So maybe it actually would have the opposite effect. Interesting.

But as norm says, it won't make the actual game any shorter. It might make it longer -- more plays, more incomplete passes, more stopped clocked.

I see no problem with restarting the game clock after it is set post- incompletion. Same as running out of bounds.

I always find it strange how people tend to love a 2 minute drill come back, but hate an entire game of, say, OU/WVU playing at that pace for generally the entire game. Perhaps I'd like some rules and penalties to be skewed back in favor of the defense...

 

[djr4rebs]

Do fans really want that? IDK.... but I sure don't.

TV and ad revenue drive what you are talking about. Shortening the game, but stretching out the frame in which it's filled. More ads sold, more money made.

As far as stopping for commercials, you have 6 time outs per half and the end of the 1st and 3rd quarters. That should be it, outside of injuries that require the golf cart.

 

[Madsol]

Norm, the fact that you don't like my idea makes me think it has a real chance of succeeding. Thanks for the affirmation.