New clock rules
After 6 games it appears the new clock rules have had no affect on reducing offensive plays per game.
Teams have learned to adjust to the new rules to still get the same number of plays.
Ave. for all Div 1 teams:
2023 - 69.3
2022 - 70.7
Ave. for the top 20 offensive play teams:
2023 - 78.4
2022 - 78.2
https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/plays-per-game?date=2023-01-10
October 13th, 2023 at 7:25 AM ^
Ok, so now we should look to see how quickly teams snap the ball. We should see that from 2022 to 2023, the number of seconds between snaps has decreased. That’s the only way this stat can be true.
October 13th, 2023 at 8:25 AM ^
Which begs the question if this reduction in time between snaps would have happened anyway or whether it was an adjustment as the OP asserts.
The old correlation does not mean causation issue.
October 13th, 2023 at 10:43 AM ^
Is it the ONLY way though?
Couldn't there be more incomplete passes now?
Couldn't there be more plays run out of bounds now?
Couldn't there be more chunk yardage/scoring places so there are fewer first downs?
October 13th, 2023 at 4:53 PM ^
OOB doesn't stop the clock permanently anymore though, so it would have to be a LOT more.
October 14th, 2023 at 12:14 AM ^
We're also at a point where half of most P5 teams' schedules are still cupcake games. We can gather almost nothing useful by these numbers at this point in the season.
October 13th, 2023 at 7:36 AM ^
Well, I for one am glad that I'm getting to see more commercials. I had no idea what a diverse universe of products awaits me out there.
October 13th, 2023 at 7:39 AM ^
Diverse universe of products? 90% of them are insurance and prescription drugs.
October 13th, 2023 at 7:54 AM ^
I miss the bygone era of funny Miller Lite ads. Beer commercials used to be fun to watch.
October 13th, 2023 at 10:49 AM ^
Yea totally. um..wait
October 13th, 2023 at 8:21 AM ^
Yeah, but how else would I have found out that I can insure my boner?
October 13th, 2023 at 8:28 AM ^
You also now know you can ensure your boner, thanks to those prescription drug commercials.
October 13th, 2023 at 9:08 AM ^
don't forget the RUGGED, MANLY TRUCK VOICE ads
October 13th, 2023 at 8:56 PM ^
Right? I’m like: how many people have Crohns? Is it enough to spend billions on a commercial on every channel 24/7? It’s like 3 of the same drugs too - the tyk2 inhibitors. Also, do people request medicine by name? Isn’t that up to the doctor and you’ll likely get the one the rep visited with last week.
October 13th, 2023 at 8:43 AM ^
If they give me more poop breaks, I'll find faster ways to poop.
/s
For real, these ads have been ridiculous forever and this year makes me feel really good about illegal streams.
October 13th, 2023 at 1:00 PM ^
I also enjoy seeing the same commercial like 5 times per game, and repeatedly week after week. You really get to memorize it and pick up on new things you never caught before. You really appreciate the actors’ ability. Said nobody. Ever. In history.
October 13th, 2023 at 7:37 AM ^
I think these stats are wrong - it should be comparing 2022-2023 to 2023-2024 (the current season). There should be negligible differences between 2021 and 2022 but for example UM has run 358 plays in 6 games this year and last year in 6 games they ran 400. I picked USC as well and they've run 370 this year after running 405 last year in 6 games.
October 13th, 2023 at 7:40 AM ^
It’s correct. The 2023 is for this year to date
2022 is for 2022-2023
Edit: I realized the link I used doesn’t take you to the most current year. You have to set the new year from the drop down.
October 13th, 2023 at 7:42 AM ^
Shame this man! SHAME HIM!!!
October 13th, 2023 at 7:42 AM ^
But when you consider that both teams have been basically running out the clock from the mid- third quarter on, it makes sense that we would have fewer plays.
October 13th, 2023 at 8:46 AM ^
Has USC been doing that?
October 13th, 2023 at 9:03 AM ^
Definitely not. Nor would they do it anyway, given that in their few not as close games they clearly try to pour it on to pile up stats for the sake of stats/awards.
October 13th, 2023 at 9:05 AM ^
Michigan has been running out the clock from the first quarter on.
October 13th, 2023 at 10:34 AM ^
USC has been in dogfights with Colorado, Arizona St., and Arizona. In their last 3 games they've run 60, 65, and 58 plays while their opponents ran 71, 90, and 77 plays. They score very quickly, which helps depress their totals, but they were demolishing teams last year and were still running high-60s/low 70s number of plays per game against the same teams. For example, they ran 58 plays against Arizona this past weekend and that was with OT; last year they ran 77 against the same Wildcats.
Michigan was salting games away last year just as much as they are now but they're still running fewer plays.
My sense is that a lot of teams play up-tempo anyway so the loss of a couple of seconds after first downs isn't massive especially when a bunch of them also throw the ball a ton, which leads to incompletions and stoppages of the clock. For example, Cal is #6 nationally in terms of plays run (464 in 6 games) and have a decent mix of run and pass (they've thrown the ball 209 times and run it 255 times). But they have completed only 58% of their passes, which is 96th nationally. So even though they run the ball a good team they get a lot of natural breaks due to incompletions. By comparison, an elite Washington offense has attempted 193 passes and run the ball 130 times, but because they're completing the ball 74% of the time they wind up running fewer plays per game overall (65 plays per game for the Huskies, 77 for the Bears). Last year the Huskies averaged 75 plays per game with largely the same run-pass ratio and efficiency.
So what's happening is that efficient offenses are running fewer plays because they're scoring quickly and not putting the ball on the ground. Mediocre offenses that (like Cal) can run a bunch of plays still if they move fast enough because their inherent inefficiency means they don't have a ton of burned clock. Michigan is one of the most efficient offenses in the country and so they just burn the clock down on teams running fewer plays than others. Maybe that changes if they get into a dogfight and throw the ball more, maybe not. But I think it's telling that teams like PSU (81 plays per game but only the 29th best offense per SP+) and Clemson (76 ppg but 26th per S+ offensively) are so high in terms of plays run while teams like Oregon and LSU are much lower (around 68 ppg) despite being much better offenses overall.
October 13th, 2023 at 12:06 PM ^
That's surprising about Oregon. I assumed they were still trying to get in as many plays as possible.
October 13th, 2023 at 7:42 AM ^
The new clock rules were always a red herring. How long does it take to move the chains, 5 seconds at most? That’s easy to mitigate for teams who want to run as many plays as they used to.
October 13th, 2023 at 7:52 AM ^
What? Let’s say there’s 30 first downs in a game. Even if it’s only 5 seconds to move chains, that’s 2.5 mins of game time that ran off the clock that didn’t before. That should result in fewer plays. Alternatively, teams would have to be snapping the ball an average of 5 seconds faster than last year. That’s a big jump.
October 13th, 2023 at 7:58 AM ^
They wouldn't need to snap it 5 seconds faster on average...
Assuming your estimate is true that it takes 5 seconds to move the chains 30 times that's 150 seconds. Since there are approximately 140 plays per game (70 for each offense) teams would only need to snap it somewhere between 1 and 5 seconds faster, probably close to 2 seconds faster. Hard to say exactly because some portion of the plays do stop the clock
October 13th, 2023 at 8:01 AM ^
Sorry to repeat your point, and I didn't think of plays that stop the clock.
October 13th, 2023 at 9:02 AM ^
Good point, but another thing I thought of: isn’t it also plays that go OB where the clock starts again after set for play? Isn’t that also a change?
October 13th, 2023 at 8:00 AM ^
Not exactly. You have to divide the lost 2.5 minutes (150 seconds) by the total number of plays, which was about 140 for the two teams combined, That's an average of a little more than a second per play that teams would be snapping the ball faster on average.
October 13th, 2023 at 9:19 AM ^
1. Not all of those 1st downs are impacted by the new clock rules (e.g., 1st downs in the last 2 minutes of each half)
2. Michigan is on average hiking the ball with 6 seconds on the play clock, meaning they’re taking 34 seconds between plays. If new clock rules are shaving 2.5 minutes (150 seconds) off the game as you say, assume that’s equally split between the teams, so that’s 75 seconds less time for Michigan when they have the ball. 75/34 = ~2 less offensive plays per game for Michigan. The reason that Michigan is down ~10 offensive plays per game this year has far more to do with other factors than the clock rules.
October 13th, 2023 at 8:55 AM ^
How long does it take to move the chains, 5 seconds at most? That’s easy to mitigate for teams who want to run as many plays as they used to.
This is true for some teams, but not all. Take Tennessee, they go as fast as possible. They have no room to go faster to mitigate the lost time.
October 13th, 2023 at 12:09 PM ^
How long does it take to move the chains, 5 seconds at most?
It's not only about moving the chains. The clock would stop as soon as the play that gained a first down ended, so it would also be stopped while the ball was being spotted. Then they'd move the chains.
October 13th, 2023 at 7:49 AM ^
How about Michigan specifically
October 13th, 2023 at 8:05 AM ^
Michigan is 9th in PPG at 37.3. The defense is 1st in PPG allowed at 6.7. Snap counts are cute though.
October 13th, 2023 at 9:54 AM ^
and where were we at PPG (offense) last year? I'm trying to stay on topic here. Nobody is saying snap counts mean that the world is ending.
User picture checks out though..
October 13th, 2023 at 10:12 AM ^
Michigan's offense was 6th in PPG last year at 40.4. Defense was 6th allowing 16.1 PPG. Ohio St's offense went from 44.2 PPG in 2022 to 35.0 PPG this year. Georgia's offense is down about 3 PPG the same as Michigan.
October 13th, 2023 at 10:19 AM ^
Stroud is looking like the potential ROY so I’m gonna say OSU’s point drop has more to do with McCord than the clock rules.
October 13th, 2023 at 11:19 AM ^
Its definitely a combination of McCord and a below average offensive line.
Stroud has great accuracy if you keep him clean. Things get dicey when you force him off his spot.
October 13th, 2023 at 7:56 AM ^
Ave. is short for Avenue. Avg. is the proper form. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else do that before lol
October 13th, 2023 at 12:42 PM ^
Username kinda checks out.
October 13th, 2023 at 7:57 AM ^
Big 10 average plays difference from this season and last season.
Indiana -12.5
Michigan -10.3
Iowa -4.9
Rutgers -3.9
Northwestern -3.8
Illinois -3.7
Ohio St. -3.5
Nebraska -1.9
Purdue -1.8
Minnesota -1.5
Mich St. +5.5
Wisconsin +6.5
October 13th, 2023 at 8:31 AM ^
Iowa is down almost 2 full possessions meanwhile Staee is like let’s get this over with ASAP
October 13th, 2023 at 10:38 AM ^
Oh my gawd. You just casually gonna murder Iowa like that?
October 13th, 2023 at 9:55 AM ^
Bingo - so while on the whole teams have adjusted... we... have not. doesnt mean bad things. but its noticeable
October 13th, 2023 at 11:03 AM ^
The OP’s premise was wrong as it was based on a faulty reading of the data. See BronxBlue’s comments. There are fewer plays per game across the board. It is obvious and it sucks.
October 13th, 2023 at 11:00 AM ^
Maryland, who last I checked is part of the Big10, is at -6.7.
Penn State is +7.8.
So 11 of 14 teams have seen a decrease. Wisconsin’s increase is likely due to the coaching change and resulting change in offensive style. Penn State’s defense is very strong this season. It’s not surprising they are giving their offense more chances to run plays. I don’t care to think about MSU.
October 13th, 2023 at 1:56 PM ^
Well, MSU has also had a coaching change, so there's that.
October 13th, 2023 at 8:38 AM ^
I also bought a new clock. It does not rule.