A number of conference commissioners and coaches said that college football games have "become too long," according to Brett McMurphy of ESPN.com. The biggest challenge is "determining how to shorten the games." SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said, "We need a bit more consistency. There are a lot of ideas that merit discussion, such as (shortening) halftime, but I think we should be careful with that." McMurphy noted the NCAA's Football Oversight Committee is "expected to discuss game length, among other matters, in a couple of weeks." In four seasons, the average length of games has "increased seven minutes," from 3:17 in '13 to 3:24 this season. This has occurred "even though the number of plays has remained virtually the same." Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson said, "There is a consensus, if not unanimity, the games need to be shortened, but there is also a strong belief that we don't want to reduce the number of plays in a game. So until the majority agrees that shorter games will require fewer plays, we will be at a standstill." Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said, "Staying under 3:25 is an appropriate aspiration." The most common suggestions on how to shorten games included "a running clock on first downs (until the final two or five minutes of each half), shortening halftime, limiting the number of replays, reducing the number of timeouts, a shorter play clock, changing in-game substitution rules and limiting the number of commercial breaks." In the past 10 years, game times have "increased 20 minutes per game, in part because teams are averaging 15 more plays per game" than in '06. Miami AD Blake James said, "It's hard to envision (reducing) commercial times, so we have to figure out ways to make games a little shorter" (ESPN.com, 1/7).
