College football running out of time

In life, timing is everything. Unfortunately, that means college football, too.If you think you're not seeing as much football as last season, you're right. Last spring, the NCAA powers-that-be decided that we were all getting too much of the sport we love.Not too many games, mind you. Remember the sacred 12-game season must be protected. The NCAA took aim on plays, actual snaps, putting viewers on a diet, if you will.Taking a page from the NFL (yuck!), the NCAA enacted a 40-second clock between plays as the pro game has had for years. This replaced the old rule, which had the referee spotting the ball for play and then a 25-second clock was used. Also a player going out of bounds will not stop the clock automatically, only until the referee signals the ball ready for play. In the last two minutes of each half, the old rule returns with the clock stopped until the ball is snapped on any out of bounds play.This all may sound minor, but its effect on the game will be as significant as Cowboys owner Jerry Jones' latest facelift. According to cfbstats.com, the number of plays per game for the first week of the season averaged just under 135 a game -- down nearly nine per game from last year. Think of that. Nine plays just vanish. Florida coach Urban Meyer calls the new rules "awful'' after his team ran what he called 46 "competitive'' plays Saturday at Tennessee.All this for what? So games will end sooner.Wonder who wants that? Here's a hint: it starts with T and ends with V. And as proven by the whopping new deals the SEC has signed with ESPN and CBS (worth an estimated $200 million annually in rights fees alone), the networks have lots of leverage.In the first week, the average game ran 13 minutes quicker, down to three hours and 10 minutes. But did we need to get rid of plays to do that? How about ditching the useless instant replay system that succeeds about as often as Notre Dame wins a bowl game? Or why not get rid of the dreaded touchdown-TV timeout-kickoff-TV timeout con that can see a woman go through childbirth quicker than USC gets lined up to run an actual play against Ohio State?Because TV can insert extra commercials into those breaks and make more money to give to schools to buy out coaches, build plush workout facilities, add luxury boxes to stadiums that already seat 100,000, etc. It's like trying to follow campaign contributions through the Republican National Committee.But it gets better. Guess who is the chairman of the rules committee that approved the timing changes? That would be Michael Clark, the coach at Division III Bridgewater (Va.) College. Though Clark has a fine record (80-18 since the start of the 2000 season), best that we can tell his Eagles have played exactly one game on national TV, a 30-27 loss to Mount Union in the 2001 D-III national title game.Not to pick on Clark, but exactly why he in charge of the committee on timing rules for D-I teams? Because of the NCAA's long-held fantasy that Bridgewater playing Ferrum is the same as LSU playing Auburn -- a preposterous canard that would make Bill Clinton proud.Clark actually claimed that based on studies of the NFL games, the timing rules would add four plays a game. Yeah right. And Tulsa and Utah will square off in the BCS national title game in January.The final irony is that the NCAA monkeyed with timing rules back in 2006. Remember when offenses had to rush out and be ready to snap the ball after it was spotted on change of possession and kickoffs?And it worked. The average time of game fell 14 minutes to 3:07. But predictably, the number of plays also plummeted 13 to 127 a game. Coaches didn't like that so they went back to the old timing system last year, and the numbers went back to 3:23 and 143.All fans want is exciting games between quality opponents. How long a game takes or how many plays are run mean virtually nothing. Until your school's valiant comeback attempt falls short and you wish there had been one more play.UPSET PICK: Another week, another final-minute loss as Auburn gagged to LSU to drop us to 0-4. We'll break out when Virginia Tech upends 7-point favorite Nebraska Saturday night in Lincoln.LINDSAY'S LOSER: Where does the river of denial run deepest? How about near Neyland Stadium in Knoxville? Consider Tennessee QB Jonathan Crompton's assessment of Florida's 30-6 beatdown of the inept Vols Saturday."We should have won the game in my opinion," said the misguided senior.Never mind that the Gators have beaten the Vols the last four seasons (the last two by a combined 89-27) and are 16-6 vs. UT since 1976. Or that Crompton's bumbling effort (18-of-28, 162 yards, a lost fumble and interception, both inside the UF 5) negated any real chance of the Vols even making the game competitive.Wonder what tales Crompton will spin after Auburn's hard-hitting defense gets through with him on Saturday?(E-mail John Lindsay at lindsayj(at)shns.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)