Whistle While You Work, Part 2

"College football is about tradition!"

"We don't want to be like the NFL!"

Blah, blah, blah... Just shut up. No other sport in the United States has a more civilized relationship between amateur and professional than football. College football will never lose its mistique. Marching bands, cheerleaders without implants, fans waiting in line hours before the game, the tailgating. No, pro will never match college... except for the rediculous game clock rules.

We now enter the second installment of how the clock rules need to be changed in order to maintain the integrity of the game. Swallow your pride and just freaking adopt the NFL rules for stopping the clock during games. How much faster would college games end if the clock didn't stop on first down? If that's too much, then stop the clock on first down inside two minutes of each half. I don't care how you do it, just don't stop that clock every time the head coach sneezes.

What's one thing NFL scouts preach come draft time? Speed, speed and more speed. Not just physical speed, but mental speed. Honestly, how many running backs are taken in the first round just because he "knows the game" or has the "mental toughness?" Now, how many quarterbacks have their careers made for them if they show the smarts NFL scouts are looking for? College football has coddled its QB's for way too long, and it's about time they had to get up and get the ball in the air or in the RB's gut... fast!

Yet, there's something wrong with how the college football rules committee figured this thing out. The new rule change for the 2007 season reads as such:
"Rule 3-3-7-a
A team timeout is 30 seconds plus the 25-second play clock interval. This provision will only apply to televised games. Conference television contracts will supersede this rule. (For example, if a team calls a timeout and a conference television agreement allows for a television timeout to be used, this timeout extends to a full media timeout. The television partners – through normal protocols – make the decision through their timeout coordinator when the ball should be whistled ready for play.)
Rationale: This change eliminates 30 seconds from team timeouts. The committee believes many timeouts are called to simply stop the clock (or when a team has formation, substitution or play clock problems). This reduction in time will save about three to six minutes, depending on how many timeouts are used during the game."

The television partners make the decision when the game should be played? Really?! Well there's a freaking surprise. Hold on, I saw a blatant holding penalty on that play. You saw it, television partners have college football by the balls and don't plan to let go anytime soon. Someone could get hurt out there, like the fans who pump in billions of dollars into the football coffers each year.

So now, televised college football games will be played differently and have alternate rules applied to them just because some network needs to stick in another Cialis commercial? Come on. Although some of the clock changes are good (like reverting to the old kickoff clock rules) most of them do nothing but allow for less game and just as many commercials before. The rulers of college football should stop trying to mask the problem of game length with butterfly BandAids when the wounds call for stitches.

If the clock continues to roll on first downs, like in the NFL, would we have memories like the one of Ryan Leaf rushing his Washington State Cougars to the line of scrimmage in the 1998 Rose Bowl versus Michigan? What if the clock kept running? Time would have run out long before the teams lined up for the last play. You would also see many more coaches throwing to the sidelines during the final two minutes. Wouldn't it look better to the scouts if your possible first-round QB had game tape showing his proficiency running an NFL-style two-minute drill? We'll see, some day.