The SEC as part of a national effort this season will be "implementing a few measures" to shave a "few minutes off the average time of a college football game," according to Seth Emerson of the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. The average length of an SEC football game last year was 3 hours and 26 minutes, while the national average was 3 hours and 24 minutes. The SEC "would like its number to go down." SEC Coordinator of Football Officials Steve Shaw said that when it comes to halftime there is an "acknowledgement that there has been too much lollygagging." The concern is that officials have "gotten away from starting the 20-minute halftime clock immediately." So now after the last play of the half, the referee will "make sure there are no flags, no replay review coming, etc." Shaw: "And then we’re going to crank the 20-minute (clock)." When the 20 minutes are up, kickoff will "quickly follow." Shaw said, "I really believe if our officials work well with our TV partners, and we do well with the halftime component, we’ll whittle that down." Shaw said that there also will be a "re-emphasis on re-starting the clock when the center judge puts the ball down to be snapped." He added that the "thinking is it will cut down five or six minutes" (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 6/6). In Tuscaloosa, Ben Jones noted "none of these are new rules; it’s a matter of being consistent in enforcing rules already in play to keep the game moving." For now, there are "no plans to make changes to the amount of commercials to shorten the games." The goal is to "keep the rules of football unchanged while still finding ways to shorten games" (TIDESPORTS.com, 6/1).
