College football clock to run after first downs as NCAA approves rule change

College football will look a little different for the 2023 season. 

The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved changes on Friday that will allow the clock to run after first downs — except for in Division III — starting next season, the NCAA announced. 

The clock will stop during the last two minutes of each half after first downs.

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“That’s important,” said Steve Shaw, NCAA secretary rules-editor and officials coordinator, “because the beauty of the difference in our game, and it allows a team late in the game, even without timeouts, to have a chance to advance the ball and come back and that sort of thing. So we’re still going to stop it in the last two minutes.”

The college football tradition has been for the clock to stop after first downs until the chains are set, separating itself from the NFL game. 

Two other changes were also approved on Friday, as teams will not be allowed to call consecutive timeouts and penalties at the end of the first and third quarters will be applied on the first play of the following quarter. 

The changes are expected to shorten games by seven to eight minutes, according to ESPN. 

“We’ve got to live it to see if really does that or it’s more or less,” Shaw said, per ESPN’s report. “So it’s a minimal change, and I think a good change directionally for the game. We looked at the number of plays and Division I is averaging about 178, 179 plays per game — all divisions are in the 170s — and you compare that to 151 plays last year per game in the NFL. It’s something we need to look at. It’s a conservative step, and we’ll see what this does for the year.”

Friday’s rule changes are just the latest in college football, with name, image and likeness (NIL) rules now allowing players to be compensated as student-athletes. 

NIL — coupled with the transfer portal — has greatly impacted recruiting over the past two years, with players at least in part choosing where to play based on how much they can make during their collegiate careers.