How much is too much when it comes to college football?
CBS allotted three and a half hours for this year's Alabama-Ole Miss game, but that amount of time was enough only for the first three quarters. (University of Alabama Athletics)
While we love our college football, the games are getting longer, and whether you’re at the stadium or watching on TV, some fans may find the interruptions frustrating.
CBS blocks off three and a half hours for games, but that’s often not enough. The Alabama–Ole Miss game on Sept. 17 would have fit in that time slot – if it had ended after the third quarter.
Instead, it took four hours, two minutes to play.
ESPN schedules three hours for some of its football broadcasts, and that’s almost never enough. The Texas A&M–Auburn game on Sept. 17 began at 6 p.m. and ended at 9:54 p.m. – 54 minutes past the allotted time.
And the Oct. 8 Alabama-Arkansas game on ESPN ran right through the College Football Scoreboard show and into the Washington-Oregon game on the West Coast, 45 minutes past the scheduled three hours.
It should be pointed out that these hours and minutes include the halftime pageantry, which is part of college football’s charm and tradition. That’s not going to change.
And neither are the commercials selling beer, cars and trucks, insurance, hardware, chicken, burgers and steaks.
After all, the revenue from those ads pays the way for the games being on TV in the first place.
Timeouts, penalties, injuries and collaborative replays also cause game delays.
The Oct. 28 Tennessee-Texas A&M game with two overtimes ran four hours, 43 minutes. That’s almost an hour longer than “Gone with the Wind” (three hours, 58 minutes).
Some networks will break for commercials and run as many as five of them before going back to the game. Fans at the games – and players, too – must wonder what’s taking so long.
Not all games are too long. But the televised games – and all SEC games are on TV – run an average of three hours, 29 minutes.
A USA Today discussion on the issue of long games included these comments from national college football writer Dan Wolken:
“The answer is frighteningly easy. It’s time to get rid of the rule that stops the clock after first downs.”
The NCAA has asked coaches and conference commissioners how they would feel about a running clock after first downs. Some coaches were against it, pointing to the strategy of stopping the clock for a team trying to make a comeback.
In general, today’s fast-pace, no-huddle offenses rack up more yardage, more first downs and more points than five years ago. Those numbers tend to stretch the time it takes to play a game.
For example, Auburn averaged 60.5 plays per game before Gus Malzahn became head coach in 2013, and is averaging 73.8 plays per game this season, according to NCAA statistics.
Ole Miss leads the SEC in average plays per game, 76.2, up from 67.2 five years ago.
So what if the games are longer? Do most fans really care?
“Who is complaining?” asked Rogers Redding, former national coordinator of football officials. “Fans aren’t. They devote a whole day to a game.”
USA Today’s Paul Meyerberg is with Redding.
“I’m in favor of games taking days on end and the college season running for seven days a week, 52 weeks a year,” he said.
“My dream is for a game between No. 1 and No. 2 lasting three days and 25 overtimes.”
Spoken like a true sports writer.
