We are on record with our objections to the ridiculous rules changes in college football this season. We have followed-up on our original entry a few times since we first ran it. (Link to more related material)
NC State and Wake Forest have both managed to take advantage of the new clock rules this season by committing penalties on offense while holding leads late in games this year (NCS vs FSU and WFU @ NCS). The penalties serve to give the team with the lead another play on the same down; so, when the clock starts when the referee places the ball on the ground a team could theoretically run the clock out without ever getting off of first down.
Smart and savy college coaches are now finding other ways to take advantage of the rule. This entry at Wizard of Odds is fascinating and highlights an AWESOME move by Wisconsin this weekend vs Penn State.
As for shortening the game, this clip is 6:06 long (worth every second, in our opinion), meaning the final 23 seconds took much longer to run under 3-2-5-e than it would have under the old rules. And a good job by analyst Paul Maguire for picking up on what Bielema was up to. Because the rules can’t be changed in the middle of the season, we can only hope other coaches do the same to hasten the repeal of 3-2-5-e in the offseason.
