New NCAA rules for 2008 -- 25-second clock gone

My guess is that they will still have to whistle the ball ready for play, at which time the game clock would start back up. I don't think the ball will be ready for play when the play clock starts.

 

Here is a video of the rules editor talking about the new rules. He doesn't mention first down stoppage though.

http://web1.ncaa.org/web_video/newmedia/FootballRules.html

And here is the NCAA news release.

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal/home...+Safety+and+Encourage+Consistent+Pace+of+Play

 

i don't get it. so now with a forty second play clock you can start kneeling at the 4 min mark??

or will the 40 second play clock start before the ball is "ready for play"?

i guess what i'm saying is before if the ball took 10 seconds to be ready for play and then a 25 second play clock would burn about 35 seconds.

so now with the same 10 seconds to get the ball ready plus forty seconds on the play clock, it's almost a minute a play.

i'm confused.

if it's going to happen this way then I HATE the new rule.

 

the clock will begin before the ball is set making the game move smoother/fasters supposedly.

before, they would wait til the ball was gathered, marked then set then whistled until the game clock was started.

 

Thanks, I read Rivals and the NCAA releases and watched the video.

I guess this is where I am stuck. I was under the impression that the 40 second clock would start as soon as the previous play ended. The 25 second clock was the ready for play clock, so shouldn’t the 40 second clock be as well?

 

Yes. I have no idea how it will work. But since the 40 second clock will start as soon as the previous plays ends, there will still be time before the ball is placed into play. I'm hoping on first downs the game clock wont start until the ball is placed.

 

Me too! I guess we’ll find out for sure on a Thursday in 195 days or so That is assuming these rules get the rubber stamp approval...

 

aiight.

i'll have to see how it plays out before i pass judgement i guess.

 

It is exactly how the NFL does it. So if you watch any NFL games, you can think back to those.

Theoretically there should be a similar amount of time between each snap, there is just no variation between games depending on who the referee is.

That, and the non-call on incidental face mask are the only rule changes i like.

 

gotcha, so the play clock will no longer start on the ref's call.

i guess the importance of timeouts just increased.