Impact of Turning Back the Clock

One has to wonder if Alabama's comeback Saturday against Arkansas would have been possible under the 2006 clock rules. You remember those rules, right? The ones that stripped nearly 16 plays from the average game and shortened the contests by 13:53.

Then we learned that telecasts — particularly those by CBS — weren't really all that much shorter. In other words, less football, more commercials.

Thankfully, the Football Rules Committee corrected its mistake, basically changing the rules back to what they were in 2005. Now it can be argued that the Crimson Tide would have never had the chance to march down the field for the winning touchdown against the Razorbacks if the game had been played under the 2006 clock rules.

But overall, what has been the impact on games in 2007? Our man Marty from cfbstats has that information, and we've charted it below.

Marty writes: "Game times for 2007 have just about returned to 2005 levels in game time, plays per game and points per game. It's actually exceeding 2005 in points per game and plays per game."

Here's the data:

Average Game Time
Year......G.......Minutes.....Time/G
2005......717*....144317.....3:21:17
2006......792.....148418.....3:07:24
2007......196......39234.....3:20.10

Average Plays Per Game
Year......G........Plays........Plays/G
2005......718.....121044.....168.58
2006......792.....120857.....152.60
2007......196......33145......169.11

Average Points Per Game
Year......G........Points.....Pts/G
2005......718.....37770.....52.60
2006......792.....37647.....47.53
2007......196.....10413.....53.13

Three-Plus Hour Games
Year......G........3+.......%
2005......717*....635.....88.6
2006......792.....509.....64.3
2007......196.....172.....87.8
*missing game duration of Toledo-Ball State 10/15/2005.