Extra Game Is Adding Up

It appears we will complete the 2006 season with approximately the same number of plays as 2005, despite the new clock rules designed to shorten games. How can this be? The addition of a 12th game has made the difference. In other words, if teams played 11 games in 2006, a full game of plays would have been lost because of the clock rules. Marty of cfbstats, who provides us with this terrific information, sent along this note: "The decrease so far from 2005 to 2006 has been less than 1% (0.8%). So really, we're not seeing less football for the season, it's just spread over more games. ... You could say that while the NCAA and schools wanted to increase revenue by playing a 12-game regular season, at least the players were not forced to participate in more plays and presumably increase their chances for an injury. ... This does not factor in increased practice time and other off-field demands that affect the lives of players by playing an extra game." Here are the Week 13 numbers:

Overall...G.......Plays.......Plays/G....Min.........Min/G......Time/G
2005......678....114161.....168.36.....135494*....200.14.....3:20:08
2006......743....113211.....152.37.....138488.....186.39.....3:06.23
* missing game duration of Toledo-Ball State 10/15/2005

Year......G........Points.....Pts/G
2005......678.....35421.....52.24
2006......743.....35196.....47.37

Year.......G.....1H Pts....1H Pts/G...2H Pts....2H Pts/G...OT
2005......678...17919.....26.43......17082.....25.19.......420
2006......743...18397.....24.76......16412.....22.09.......387

Here are the shortest games from Week 13:
Central Michigan-Buffalo: 2:38
North Texas-Louisiana Monroe: 2:40
Marshall-Southern Mississippi: 2:40
Virginia-Virginia Tech: 2:43
San Jose State-Idaho 2:45

Here are the longest games from Week 13:
Florida-Florida State: 3:35
Air Force-Nevada Las Vegas: 3:29
North Carolina-Duke: 3:26
Oregon-Oregon State: 3:25
Cincinnati-Connecticut: 3:23
Colorado-Nebraska: 3:23