The NCAA is considering several rule changes in an effort to speed up college football games, including keeping the clock running on first downs and incomplete passes. While Alabama Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban is interested in one of the proposed rule changes, he has a problem with the other.
During an interview with Ross Dellinger of Sports Illustrated, Nick Saban revealed that he is in favor of keeping the clock rolling on first downs, but not on incomplete passes.
“I’m kind of for the first down thing, but I’m an old NFL guy,” Saban said. “I’m not quite as in favor of the incomplete pass. You throw a pass 50 yards down the field, it takes people time to get back, and now the clock is running?”
Saban sees another aspect of the game that he thinks takes too much time: video replay.
“If you talk to the fans, they think the game stoppages for [replay] review are too long. What the NFL has done, where the guy doesn’t go over and always has to look in the thing and that decision gets made by video review quickly, I think that would help it. I lived in the NFL where you had to throw the flag out there [to challenge]. You don’t have time. Unless it’s an obvious mistake, you really don’t have time between plays. And if the other team knows there’s a controversy, they are going to go fast so you have less time.
I like the college system better. I think it needs to be implemented in a better way.”
We’ll have to see what kind of changes the NCAA officially makes. For what it’s worth, the league is no longer considering allowing the clock to run after an incomplete pass.
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