Seth Emerson ($$) writes about an evergreen topic.
You’re not imagining it: College football games are taking longer. And not a small amount longer.
But… there’s a new villain in town, boys. Or so we’re told.
But the television networks and their annoying timeouts aren’t to blame. Nor are the long replay reviews. It’s not even the epic weather delays, because even if you take those out the average college football game has lengthened by four minutes since 2017, now up to an average of 3 hours, 22 minutes, even though the number of plays is going down.
“Four minutes is a lot,” said NCAA coordinator of officials Steve Shaw, who tracks the data. “The why is very complex.”
Perhaps, but there is one main, overriding reason why game times have gone up so much lately: passing.
Damn you, sophisticated offenses! Shame on you for giving us more action.
There are a number of potential moves contemplated to shorten game times. (I won’t insult your intelligence by calling any of them “solutions”.) Here’s one: more advertising while the game is on air, in exchange for fewer TV timeouts. I think we all know how that story will end.
Besides, those complaints about commercials are just a smoke screen. Things on that front are working just fine. Just ask SEC associate commissioner Mark Womack.
“TV probably has the same elements to it then (in 2017) that it has now. Those aren’t changed dramatically,” Womack said. “As a matter of fact, we’ve probably tightened them up by using our timeout clock. The fan looks at it and says, ‘Guys this TV timeout is going on forever, they take five-minute breaks.’ Well no they don’t, and you can see it now.”
As we like to say here on occasion, “probably” is doing some heavy lifting there.
In other words, I look forward to Seth’s next piece on this topic next year.
Get The Picture 
I commented on that article on The Athletic to note the dissonance in the article. The fact that “4 minutes is a lot” but “it’s not TV timeouts”.
Really?
The article notes that the TV networks average about 3 breaks per quarter of 2:30 to 3:00 long. If just one 30-second slot was shaved off per break and the advertiser’s revenue instead gave them one of those bottom line ads that pop up every 30 seconds or so, you’re talking about removing SIX minutes.
If 4 minutes is a lot, 6 minutes must be an eternity.
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And those tv timeouts can cool momentum. To say the actual game is the problem while ignoring the amount of commercial time versus playing time is ludicrous. No one is complaining about watching the game.
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Correct, Debbie. The commercials affect the game flow. I wish CFB would handle commercials like soccer and F1 do, with a commercial running at the bottom while the action continues. Let the game play out naturally, let companies pay their bills, and everyone should be happier. It’s such a no brainer that it will never happen.
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I agree. Golf and Nascar also does the same thing.
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One more point as food for thought: are games at the DII or DIII or NAIA level taking as long as games on the FBS level?
If that’s the case, then we have a good argument that the rules are making games longer.
If not, this is all a ruse to divert attention from the next edition of Fansville, starring Bryce Young.
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I can answer that one. I work chain crew sometimes at Berry College in Rome (D3) and we’re usually done within 3 hours.
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That guy in the red jacket, who deigns to tell everybody when they may proceed, should be taken out and shot.
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I hate to be that guy, Hogbody, but in these times I would use a different phrasing than saying someone should be shot for doing his job.
You seem to be a great guy and I enjoy your posts, so nothing personal to you.
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TV is going to keep improving the game until no one watches anymore.
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Truer words have seldom been said.
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The games can take as long as possible as far as I’m concerned. I paid a lot of money to be there and I love being there. The dumb rule changes that will undoubtedly come to once again attempt to make the games shorter will just make the games worse. If the TV folks get to keep their commercial timeouts then we get to keep our games the way they are.
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During the Samford game, I’m certain there was a 20-30 minute stretch where there were more commercial breaks than gameplay. We would come back from a 3-minute TV timeout, Samford would go three-and-out in about a minute of gameplay, and then right back to a 3-minute TV timeout. This happened more than once.
The break between the quarters is longer than 3 minutes. Halftime is 20 minutes. There are plenty of spaces to shave a minute or two here and there, but the way they will address it will always remove football at the expense of advertising.
By the way, no one consuming the product is concerned about football games taking longer. Well, no one except the TV execs who want nice and tidy TV windows. It seems like the advertisers would actually be on the fan’s side in this argument. Their advertising would be more effective if consumed more exclusively. Instead, it’s the same Dr. Pepper commercial 50,000 times, a Rocket Mortgage commercial, and dear god the political ads.
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For my 3-year old, the ads are her favorite parts of the games. So there’s that.
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I don’t know why there can’t be a studio team watching the game in real time and be able to review a call almost instantly.
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the eventual “solution” will be both more digital ads AND rules changes to rolling clock on out of bounds plays and eventually no stoppage for 1st downs instead of changes in the ad inventory schedules. you know like the nfl model these fools chase and covet. and they’ll snake oil sell it to us as a doing it for the kids feature. FTheseMF’s.
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Yep, NFL Lite.
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With more passing comes more reviews for ball possession and targeting, and both of these almost always break to commercials. So yeah, in a twisted way you can blame the game, but that’s not the problem.
Not looking forward to commercials being shown on half the screen during live action, but you know it’s coming. I’d bet this post-season does it as they proclaim how much better it is for us at home. Golf, auto racing, baseball are unwatchable as the mix of commercial breaks and side-by-side to live action is 50 / 50. It’s so bad the broadcasters have taken to crowing about how the final 5 minutes or so of action being commercial free. I don’t think football will be bold enough to show the final 2 minutes of a game commercial free because of the TOs.
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4 mins! Holy shit Batman! That’s 4 60 sec spots some network is missing out on!
What a fn joke some people can be…
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TV commercials are proof of the old saying ‘he who has the gold, makes the rules.’
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If we are really looking at 4 minutes, lets take a look at a few things that never get mentioned…..
Review plays. Why the hell cant we get review stations at both ends of the field? Say Georgia is driving to the bridge end and is in the red zone. Play needs to be reviewed. Our esteemed official has to jog minimum 50 yards to a video screen to begin the review, then 50 back. minimum 20 seconds there.
Next, the reference to a 30 second timeout. These are the short ones that are either no commercial or a short, perhaps 15 second spot. That would be great, except that every coach has decided that you must now gather the entire team in a big huddle during these. By the time all is sorted, it adds probably an extra 45 seconds or so to the procedure. The same added time goes for minor injuries and reviews. So how many of those 45 seconds does it take to get to 4 minutes?
Some semi-common sense stuff could cut much more than the 4 minutes almost immediately, with no rule changes, and no decrease in commercials.
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I hate to say it, review needs to be like VAR in soccer. The booth checks it out in about 30 seconds and the ref just gives a quick hand signal and they move along. Stop the referee huddles and podium speeches. For regular penalties and such, let the assistant refs who threw the flag make a quick call with their hands…..they can remove their hat to show they are the one with the call. Simple hand signal while his buddies spot, move it along.
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I blame Dr. Pepper.
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WE MUST DEFEND FAR TOO MANY ADVERTISING BREAKS AT ALL COST
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You know what’s even worse? It’s the bumpers networks insist on having before and after the breaks. I don’t need an additional x many seconds break to hear anyone’s thoughts on the game. Let’s get it on.
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Bingo!
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If you have a guy in the booth to review the play let him call the damn thing. There is zero need for the Ref to go over and watch the replay for 3 minutes to spot the ball. Keep the clock running on out of bound plays until the last two or how ever minutes you want of the half or EOG, then stop the clock on out of bounds plays. Make the refs move their fat butts and set the ball. Lower the Play clock to 35 seconds, if the refs can’t get it set fast enough let them stop the play clock not the game clock.
I agree with the above that the 3 and outs cause a lot more 3 minute commercials. Don’t go to commercial every time the ball changes procession in the fourth quarter or in any quarter.
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Let’s see, more commercials mean more money for the networks to pay the colleges for the games which have more commercials that mean more money yada yada yada
Viscous cycle.
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