Speeding Up Games
Clearly TV has slowed down the college game. The number of commercial breaks greatly effect game flow whether you are at the game or watching on TV. I believe the answer improving the viewing product is adopting advertising elements from European football. Obviously, the money in European football is enormous. Not unlike football on this side of the Atlantic. TV coverage in Europe is practially wall-to-wall and networks pay large rights fees and make out just fine. And that is with a game that has 45 minutes...plus stoppage...of uninterrupted flow. So...how might that work with college football? How about this:
1. A narrow band at either the top or bottom of the screen that has one (silent) ad that can be exclusive to one advertiser for a specific period or time (a minute, five minutes, whatever). That band runs all game long. The ad can not move or be animated. So it might say "MgoBlog...Do Not Be Deceived." During down times (changes of possession, timeouts, measurements, reviews*, injuries) a larger proportion of the screen can be used for advertising but at least half the screen remains at the game and the announcers continue to announce.
2. There are two windows per quarter for a two minute ad break.
3. There is a three minute ad break between quarters.
4. Halftime remains at its current length.
The fundamental principle here, which appears to work for the Europeans, is fewer minutes of advertising makes the minutes that are available more valuable. And that permanent exclusive band along the top or bottom would be very valuable.
Less commercial time makes for a much more watchable game in the stands and in the family room. So folks, fire away...
*Side note: reviews should last no longer than one minute. If they can not find enough evidence to overturn within 60 seconds the ruling on the field stands.
November 28th, 2017 at 6:42 PM ^
November 29th, 2017 at 8:26 AM ^
What review have you seen that's been anywhere near 60 seconds? Even the fastest are a couple of minutes.
November 28th, 2017 at 6:46 PM ^
if we require them to be in Benny Hill mode.
November 28th, 2017 at 6:49 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 7:10 PM ^
Some of those guys work out. Have you seen Ed Hochuli?
November 28th, 2017 at 6:46 PM ^
We can start by not having a touchdown, commercial, kickoff, then another commercial like Saturday.
November 28th, 2017 at 6:49 PM ^
Does the NFL do commercials differently? Their games seem to consistently be about three hours without too much variance whereas college games seems to go on much longer with a lot more variance as well.
November 28th, 2017 at 6:52 PM ^
on first downs. That would be a start.
November 28th, 2017 at 6:59 PM ^
That just means less football.
I want the same amount of football but less non-football time.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:14 PM ^
Same. Less like NFL the better. More football, less commercial breaks.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:32 PM ^
November 29th, 2017 at 9:59 AM ^
The commericals make the games way too long. Sometimes I think they should just get rid of the kick off and just spot the ball at the 25 each time. Most of the time kickoffs are just touch backs and it's a waste of time.
Also maybe shorten the halftime a little bit, doing those two things would probably shorten the game by about 30 minutes.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:38 PM ^
November 29th, 2017 at 8:33 AM ^
the clock starts when the ball is spotted ... vs "ready for play".
Go Blue!
November 28th, 2017 at 7:18 PM ^
Even the NFL is now making allowances for longer games. It used to be 1 o'clock and 4 o'clock start times. Now, that late game sometimes starts at 4:25 or thereabouts.
November 28th, 2017 at 6:51 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 6:51 PM ^
Why don't they just play commercials during Michigan's passing downs?
November 28th, 2017 at 6:52 PM ^
every first downs (except for final 2 minutes). That would be a start. With the no huddle, up tempo offense, it's not needed.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:06 PM ^
So we solve the problem of too many commercial breaks by . . . reducing the number of plays in the game?
November 28th, 2017 at 10:43 PM ^
College Football takes forever to finish and some takes 4-5 hours which is too damn long. By getting rid of stopping clocks on every first down would reduce the game by at least an hour.
Less commerical breaks would also solve the problem as well but both of them together would accomplish the goal.
November 29th, 2017 at 12:38 AM ^
"By getting rid of stopping clocks on every first down would reduce the game by at least an hour."
At least an hour? You really think out of a 3 and a half or 4 hour broadcast, about 1/3 or 1/4 of that time is the time between 1st and 2nd down when the ball hasn't been spotted yet?
November 29th, 2017 at 5:45 AM ^
It's not an hour or even close to an hour, but I do find the rule of stopping the clock after a first down to be silly.
November 29th, 2017 at 6:35 AM ^
You seem to be approaching this as though the only problem people have is that games last 3 1/2 hours instead of 3, and that anything that gets games down to 3 hours is fine.
I don't think that's it. I think people enjoy watching the actual football being played. It's the endless commercial breaks that ruin our enjoyment.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:17 PM ^
No. I like those the way they are. How about product placement? Nordin misses extra point, camera zooms in on JH with an Alka-Seltzer. /s
November 28th, 2017 at 7:34 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 7:48 PM ^
It's a commercial break.
November 28th, 2017 at 6:52 PM ^
that games last as long as they do
November 28th, 2017 at 9:36 PM ^
The incessant advertising is super annoying. There are at least double the amount of commercials as there were twenty years ago.
November 29th, 2017 at 5:50 AM ^
I don't know if it's just me, but Fox seems to have more commercial breaks than the other networks. They paid a gazillion dollars for the rights to broadcast the games and conferences they do and thus it was part of their business model to increase the commercials to cover the cost. I really don't care much for Fox's coverage of CFB either and this is one of the reasons.
November 28th, 2017 at 6:55 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 7:53 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 7:03 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 7:05 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 7:08 PM ^
With the banner going through all the time, and split screen during all time stoppages, should be able to limit the 2 minute window to only between quarters. Then load em up at halftime. Halftime shows with dumb commentary is painful to watch anyway.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:18 PM ^
but it feels like more than one per game easily. It also seemed like the replay officials were doing a better job this year. I'd gladly let games run a little longer to avoid TDs in the Rose Bowl with the ball sitting on the 3 yard line.
November 28th, 2017 at 9:54 PM ^
Exhibit 1...DPJ against Wisconsin.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:22 PM ^
Replay at least has the potential to contribute positively to the game. Cut the commercial breaks.
November 28th, 2017 at 9:02 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 7:08 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 7:17 PM ^
So you want even more commercials (with the added 2-minute warning) and fewer actual football plays per game?
November 28th, 2017 at 7:21 PM ^
will go somewhere else. I'd much prefer lengthening halftime, cramming it with ads and having fewer breaks during play.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:09 PM ^
November 29th, 2017 at 7:41 AM ^
For most games. I start watching about an hour after kickoff and I'm usually caught up to live TV by the end of the game. I really hate commercials and halftime BS. They should show the actual halftime show instead of some morans talking in a TV studio.
And start the broadcast 30 mins before kickoff so people can see the pregame stuff.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:09 PM ^
Before someone brings up that European sports teams have advertising on their uniforms, that has nothing to do with this. Jersey ad revenue doesn't go to the TV networks, but directly to the clubs (and most don't make that much from it, incidentally).
November 28th, 2017 at 7:13 PM ^
Start any proposal with how they make more money as the first sanity check.
Eliminating “stoppage time” makes more sense to shorten games but we’d still run into the problem of less ad inventory and less profit.
FYI banner ads aren’t going to come close to making it up.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:19 PM ^
Are you in the advertising industry or something?
Don't believe that nonsense. Most of the world's televised sporting events are nowhere near as choppy and ad-filled as North American sports are. People here have no idea how much the TV networks play them for fools. In the rest of the world it's entirely possible for networks to make money on sports broadcasts without taking ad breaks every three minutes.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:17 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 7:30 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 8:25 PM ^
However it would be great to move kick-offs to 1:00 and 3:00.
November 28th, 2017 at 8:33 PM ^
It doesn't bug me much at the games either. I kind of like the breaks to build anticipation and releive the periods of stress at the game. I'm also usually thinking something like, "Can I please stay in this cathedral of a stadium for longer please?"
Maybe I'm just weird.