I give Larry Scott plenty of crap when he deserves it, so it’s only fair to dish out some praise when he turns up on the side of the angels.
The Pac-12 will shorten halftime and reduce the number of commercial breaks during its non-conference schedule this season as part of a trial program to reduce the length of its football games.
Halftime will be 15 minutes long, cut down from the usual 20-minute break. The number of commercial breaks will be reduced and they will be shorter in length, Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said Wednesday.
Scott announced the initiative as the Pac-12 kicked off its media days in Hollywood. The experiment is intended to shorten ballooning game times in an era of up-tempo offenses running more plays and the increased scoring that comes with it.
Let us hope this experiment succeeds beyond our wildest dreams. Attaboy, Larry.
Get The Picture 
We can only hope 1. this plan is spectacularly successful with no appreciable loss of revenue and that 2. someone in the SEC notices. What do you think, if it works, maybe in about three years we try it?
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Perfect solution for games that begin after I’ve gone to sleep.
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Fewer Commercials?
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Aint gonna happen, but
Eliminate instant replay,
reduce commercials to only time outs, quarters, and half-time. Not after scores.
IMO this is what has added to the time to play the game.
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Halftime is when you get to eat or use the restroom so no need to shorten it. Cut down on all the commercials during the game. I watched a replay during the Georgia take over and there were times you had a short period of play sandwiched between six minutes of commercials.
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Totally agree. Shortening halftime will shorten the total time, I guess, but it also shortens the fans ability to pee, etc., without missing some action (how about those lines at Sanford?) and it screws the bands who have traditionally worked hard and been an integral part of the college football experience if you’re at the stadium. I like limiting commercials because that is good for fans sitting in the heat waiting for the guy in the white cap to get his ass off the field, but if they will give up the money, I may have some beachfront property in Hahira to sell them.
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Reducing commercial breaks sounds good, but shortening halftime sounds like a mistake. I can’t imagine that will go over well with coaches & players.
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I love it.
Ultimately, I’ll defer to the in-stadium crowd’s opinion if 15 minutes is long enough for the necessary business. I can piss and refresh beverage during any commercial break.
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Ordinarily, I’d complain about shortening halftime. However, in an era when most visiting teams don’t bring their bands anymore, there’s some dead time. If the coaches are okay with 15 minutes, I don’t have a problem with it… especially if that’s the price we have to pay to get shorter commercial breaks and no screwing around with the rules to shorten game times.
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Agreed. If you can’t take a dump and get a beer in 15 minutes, then your diet needs changing.
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Dont know much about the PAC, but if the sec did nothing more than eliminate the conference plugs it would speed the game up by 15+ minutes.
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Next to college football, I have always liked the NHL next for my favorite sport. I think one of the main reasons for that is the far fewer timeouts and only a couple of TV breaks. During the Stanley Cup this past year, there were games when they went 7-9 minutes without the whistle blowing. Meanwhile other sports…especially the NBA and College Basketball take a half an hour to play the last 5 minutes of a half or game. I hope Scott’s experiment is successful.
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No commercials. Zero. during any sporting event on a European tv. Hell even the Big Bang Theory, no fucking commercials until the end or at the beginning.
If it means that Coca Cola or Delta airlines logo is plastered on the Beloved Bulldog jersey and no commercials were played during the game, I’d vote yes for that.
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Agree 100%. Don’t screw with the game. Just figure out an alternate way to monetize it.
I’m not a huge soccer fan, but when I do watch it, I get to watch soccer, not commercials. Heck, even the British Open on NBC had their “play through” commercials on a split screen that continued to show live action on the other half.
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Those “play through” commercials were fantastic, and would work for some of the CFB breaks. Still prefer raising ad rates to allow fewer commercials but I am OK with the “play through” concept. Cutting commercials from the back-to-back-to-back commercials on scores, PATs. kickoffs is another easy call.
Do not understand the ones who want to eliminate instant replay, how can you not want the correct call in a game we all care so much about. If you are going to invest anywhere from 12 hours for attendees and 4 hours for us TV guys, why wouldn’t the correct outcome of plays not be a top priority? If your time (15 minutes, maybe?) is more important than a proper call, why even go/watch? You obviously have more important things going on than football during that time period, go do those and leave the game alone for those who feel that is a very significant improvement in the last 25 years.
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Wait, someone thinks limiting commercials will shorten games? What planet are they from? Here on earth, with a yellow sun, we know that’s not true.
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Shortening the half is silly.
As the game times have gotten longer and longer, the one aspect of the game that has not gotten longer is the halftime break. So we start by cutting out 5 minutes there? That only gets you 5 minutes. 5 minutes isn’t the problem, the extra 30 minutes of commercials and “the previous play is under review” in the last few years is the problem.
And yes, I did read the article and know they are talking about (scare quotes–‘talking about’) commercials as well.
On a less grumpy note, I will leave you with a very old and not-very-funny coach-joke about why youth soccer halftimes are only 5 minutes (10 in a high school game).
Why are halftimes so short? Because the longer the Coach has to talk, the more s/he will screw up the team.
😎
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