Tom Hart reacts to proposed rule changes in college football, suggests ‘give and take’
By Keith Farner
Published:
Tom Hart reacted to proposed rule changes in college football ahead of the 2023 season.
The non-controversial proposals include (1) prohibiting consecutive timeouts, such as icing kickers, and (2) no longer extending a first or third quarter for an untimed down if the quarter ends on a defensive penalty (the down would be clocked starting the next quarter). Another change would be that the clock would continue to run after an offense gains a first down except inside of two minutes in a half. The final proposal is the clock would continue to run after an incomplete pass once the ball is spotted for play.
“The timing rules are the most interesting,” Hart said on his weekly appearance on WJOX’s “McElroy and Cubelic In the morning.” “Personally, yes the games can drag a little bit, it’d be good to try to make them a little bit more tidy. But I don’t think we need less football, I don’t think we need fewer plays. That’s a fine line to try to figure out how to make that happen.”
Hart then looked ahead to College Football Playoff expansion and teams playing longer seasons. He said one way to promote safety is to shorten games. But to make the other 120 or so teams adjust for the 12 teams in the Playoff means that there needs to be some “give and take,” Hart said. “There’s got to be a fine line to figure out how to best serve the game.”
“There’s a lot of competition with only one ball to go around and I’m a fan of a lot of offense,” Hart said. ” … I want to see the best players carry the ball a lot.”
Cole Cubelic and Hart then talked about addressing so-called “fake injuries” and other unintended consequences that lead to stoppages during the game.
TV’s @tom_hart shares his thoughts on the potential CFB rule changes & discusses this week’s SEC hoops action! https://t.co/eeR2pV20Rr
— McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning (@macandcube) February 21, 2023
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
