There are times when the Blogosphere kicks ass. The Wizard of Odds contacted Michael Clark, the coach at Bridgewater (Va.) College who is also the chairman of the rules committee, and asked if he would be willing to elaborate further about the newly proposed clock changes.
Mr. Clark has proved both gracious and informative about this. Here’s the money part of what he had to say in response.
“From an ESPN perspective, I believe 3 hours and 20 minutes is the number they would like to work near [for length of games]. However to do this there has to be all three groups involved and not just the played game itself. Television production has to be more disciplined with time of commercial breaks and piggy-backing replay and commercial time together. College administrators need to keep halftime events tracked tightly and the like. In the past, all game-length responsibility has been pushed on the game product itself…”
I give him credit. This is a much less submissive position than the one I originally interpreted him to have. The question is, though, what happens if these proposed changes don’t get the broadcast time down to ESPN-approved levels?
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UPDATE: Dennis Dodd airs some similar thoughts from UConn HC Randy Edsall:
We think rules committee member Randy Edsall, the Connecticut coach, has it right.
“We, as coaches, are willing to do some things to speed up the pace of play because we understand the TV games are a little bit longer, ” Edsall said. “We also have to have the cooperation of the TV people.”
Two changes that were discussed: 1) compel networks to go to a commercial during a replay. That kills two birds. Networks get to sell product, instead of wasting down time with happy chatter.2) Cut the length of halftime.
“We might have to go to a 15-minute halftime,” Edsall added. “Get your (commercials) done before the game. Get them done in your breaks. There has to be some give and take on all three sides. It just can’t always be the coaches trying to come up with ways to (speed up) the pace of the game.”
Get The Picture 
Have you ever gone to the restroom and bought at Coke during halftime at SANFORD (not Dooley) STADIUM and not missed the 2nd half kickoff?When was the last time you heard a fan say the games are too long? I obviously don’t understand the problem. Is it a Madison Avenue problem?
Regarding replay- remember the Sugar? When the announcers were bitchin about CMR and it turns out he won the replay. They never showed it and I still don’t know what happened.
Go Dogs. Long live CMR.
PS Is there a basketball coach in the house?
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Trimming half-time is long overdue, IMO.
Commercials during replay is fine, as long as these commercials do *not* add to game length, which is certainly something that needs to be guarded against. If they cut down on the number of change of posession commercial breaks, then yay!
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