Back in February, I listed the proposed rule changes for college football. The proposed changes still had to be approved by an NCAA oversight committee, and that’s now taken place. While the vast majority of the changes were approved as-is, there are also some new developments.

The main point is that 3-2-5-e is dead. Good.

One proposal that didn’t make it through was a plan to limit official reviews (replays) to 2:00. Citing “the potential for technical difficulties,” the rules committee withdrew this proposal. It’s not really a big deal as replays averaged just 1:49 last year. I maintain that the policy of reviewing every play is a bigger issue. It’s not that replays take too long in most cases – there are sometimes just too many plays being reviewed.

The talk of a 40-second play clock keeps coming around.

The committee will also begin considering a play clock that alternates between 40 seconds and 25 seconds, depending on whether the clock has stopped. The NFL uses that system, and the committee thinks it could speed up games.

We’re going to end up with a system here in a couple of years where the play clock is 40 seconds in some cases, 25 in others, and 15 in the rest. Choose one. The guys on the field have enough to worry about without wondering if this is the second snap after the full moon and whether or not they have to get the play off in 10 seconds or 45 seconds.