NCAA approves rule change to run clock after first downs

The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel on Friday approved a rule change for 2023 that will allow the clock to run after first downs in all divisions except Division III, the NCAA announced on Friday.

The clock will continue to stop during the final two minutes of each half, maintaining at least part of a rule that long helped differentiate college football from the NFL.

«That's important,» said Steve Shaw, NCAA secretary rules-editor and officials coordinator, «because the beauty of the difference in our game, and it allows a team late in the game, even without timeouts, to have a chance to advance the ball and come back and that sort of thing. So we're still going to stop it in the last two minutes.»

The NCAA also approved two other rules that were proposed in February and will modestly impact the time of the game. Teams will now be prohibited from calling consecutive team timeouts, and penalties at the end of the first and third quarter will carry over and be enforced on the first play of the next quarter.

Currently, if there is an accepted penalty for a foul on the last timed down of any quarter — by either team — the officials extend it.

Shaw told ESPN on Friday the combined changes are estimated to shorten the game by seven to eight minutes and eight plays, but the changes weren't directed at just shortening the game time. He said it was more about keeping the game moving while reducing the number of plays.

«We've got to live it to see if really does that or it's more or less,» Shaw said. «So it's a minimal change, and I think a good change directionally for the game. We looked at the number of plays and Division I is averaging about 178, 179 plays per game — all divisions are in the 170s — and you compare that to