Quick. Snap the ball. Even though it’s a couple days away from Saturday, I think the game clock is running.
In its latest bow to network television, the NCAA has changed the way the clock works on change of possession. From time immemorial, if your team was behind and made a great defensive stop, but used all its timeouts doing so, you could at least count on the fact that the change of possession (i.e., the punt) would stop the clock, and give everyone a chance to catch their collective breath.
No more.
Because “someone” judged that college football broadcasts are now “too long” (three guesses who the “someone” might be), after kicks and punts and interceptions and fumbles, as soon as the ufabetดีมั้ย game officials are able to set the first-down markers and spot the football, the game clock will start running again.
It’s disconcerting. I mean, your team recovers a fumble, you slap five with your buddies, you get up for another beer or a visit to the porcelain god, and you return to find the game clock running. “Did I miss a play?” you ask. “Did something happen?” No, nothing happened. And if this rule stays in effect, a lot more of nothing will happen on college football fields across the land.
“The concern has been that game [lengths] were creeping up — not by quantum leaps but getting longer and longer each year,” Dennis Poppe, the NCAA’s managing director of football, told the News & Observer. “There was a concern … about an increased potential for injury because of time on the field.”
Yeah, right. The NCAA passed a rule because they care about injuries. And my left testicle just announced it’s running for governor.
This is ridiculous. This new clock rule is a huge benefit to a team that’s ahead late. It’s a huge detriment to someo