September 4, 2008

New clock rules contributing to shorter games?

One of the stated objectives of the new 40-second play clock was to add consistency to the clock rules without causing a reduction in the number of plays.

"It is our hope that the 40-25 clock will add a consistent pace of play," he said. "NFL studies show when they made this change it also added four plays per game. The live ball carrier out of bounds happens on average about 12 times a game. A couple of those are in the last two minutes where there will be no change and the handful of plays lost through this should be replaced by the 40-25 pace of play. It should be a push."

While its too early to draw conclusions, we can say that -- after one week -- the new clock rules have contributed to an overall decline in the number of plays per game.

As for the average number of plays, it was 134.7 in Week 1, down from 143.4 in 2007. That's 8.7 plays. In 2006, the average was 127.5, down 13.2 plays from 2005.

Not surprisingly, the length of games has also dropped, even -- as Da Wiz points out -- with an OT game for UCLA-UT and a rain delay at OU.

Here is the data through Monday's games:

             G      Plays/G   Time/G
2005     717    140.7      3:21
2006     792    127.5      3:07
2007     792    143.4      3:23
2008      73     134.7      3:10

As you can see, the length of games is down considerably year-over-year. This is something we will be watching to see if this is a blip or a trend.

Posted by Kevin Donahue

Comments:

New clock rules contributing to shorter games?
One of the stated objectives of the new 40-second play clock was to add consistency to the clock rules without causing a reduction in the number of plays.
"It is our hope that the 40-25 clock will add a consistent pace of play," he said. "NFL studies show when they made this change it also added four plays per game. The live ball carrier out of bounds happens on average about 12 times a game. A couple of those are in the last two minutes where there will be no change and the handful of plays lost through this should be replaced by the 40-25 pace of play. It should be a push."
While its too early to draw conclusions, we can say that -- after one week -- the new clock rules have contributed to an overall decline in the number of plays per game.
As for the average number of plays, it was 134.7 in Week 1, down from 143.4 in 2007. That's 8.7 plays. In 2006, the average was 127.5, down 13.2 plays from 2005.
Not surprisingly, the length of games has also dropped, even -- as Da Wiz points out -- with an OT game for UCLA-UT and a rain delay at OU.
Here is the data through Monday's games:

             G      Plays/G   Time/G
2005     717    140.7      3:21
2006     792    127.5      3:07
2007     792    143.4      3:23
2008      73     134.7      3:10
As you can see, the length of games is down considerably year-over-year. This is something we will be watching to see if this is a blip or a trend.