Report: Rule Change Coming to College Football in 2023

A significant change is reportedly coming to college football this season. For decades, college football has sought to put its own spin on the game, often bucking trends set by the NFL, and creating new rules that the pro league eventually adopts as well. 5-yard penalties for accidental face mask grazes, targeting, 15-yard penalties for pass interference, and both teams getting the ball in overtime from the 25-yard line. Some of those rules remain, some not, and some have made their way to the NFL.

Now it seems that college football will be looking to the NFL, instead of the other way around, for a rule change. Per Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports, the NCAA's Playing Rules Oversight Panel will likely implement a rule change that will change how the clock works on first downs. As things stand now, the game clock stops until the chain crew gets the markers set. The rule change, proposed in March, will change that, keeping the game clock running even after a team picks up a first down, except in the final two minutes of each half.

The rule change seems to stem from the ever-lengthening run times of college football games. TV broadcasters typically set aside a three-and-a-half-hour block for college games but with the proliferation of the up-tempo offense and passing the football (which leads to clock stoppages on incompletions), games consistently run past that mark. Of course, television networks could shorten the number of commercials they show in the block to solve the problem, but that's never going to happen. The committee expects the number of plays per game to be reduced by 7-10.

Per Dodd, the NCAA is expected to change two other rules as well. If passed, teams would no longer be able to call consecutive timeouts (think icing the kicker) and penalties that occur during the final play of the 1st and 3rd quarters would be enforced at the start of the next quarter instead of playing an untimed down.