Tuesday Play Tracking: Seasons Are Over, Except Army

We got double OT to bolster some plays and calculated play calls to shorten games

We have results for everyone, except Army because we are waiting on the Army-Navy Game. Here’s last week:

Then the results coming out of Rivalry Week and the end of the regular season:

And the raw:

So, what do we know?

-Plays per game everyone in our sample size is down, except New Mexico. Which seems like the new rules are working to limit plays.

-New Mexico and Miami both played double overtime games, Texas Tech played one double overtime game. The Lobos and the Canes played two games of OT, 3 total overtime periods. Only New Mexico was up. Probably helped that Clemson was living in a “the short game is what helps us, eat up clock” world for Miami being down in that overtime game.

-Michigan is down 28 minutes and 6 plays, and if my math is bad it is because I forgot my calculator at home. I know the rules are designed to cut time so maybe that is what this is. I don’t think it is, I think it is a team that does what they have to in order to win but isn’t as good as they should be.

-On the flip side, LSU has to do everything to win and Jayden Daniels should also win the Heisman for everything he does for this team to win. They are down 7 plays but only down one minute with no overtime games. They’re maxing out time. Third in our sample size, one minute below a season ago and no bonus ball.

-December 9th, a super tight Army-Navy game that has the possibility of them dropping from 193, already 6 minutes from 2022 time.

Here are some other things I want to check into in the offseason or for next season and would love your suggestions on areas to focus.

-Reviews

-Penalties

-Network vs Network

-Injuries

-Time of Day

Penalties, injuries and reviews are, in my estimation, the three biggest “in-game” things that add time. Whether it is a heavily penalized game, a long injury timeout like a spineboarding or air-cast situation and multiple targeting or spotting the ball reviews. Those take a lot of time.

Which leads to the next thing, “Network vs Network” because they have inventory sold (ads) that the new rules are actively working against. You promised Liberty or State Farm or Allstate or Dr. Pepper or whoever else X-amount of runs, and the new rules are making that a bit more challenging. So, I’d like to see network vs network how that works out, time-wise.

Leading to the final one, time of day. Fox has made a point to make Big Noon Kickoff a thing. Disney/ABC/ESPN (all one thing), has really hammered into primetime Saturday. NBC gets what they get depending on what the Big Ten and obviously Notre Dame have to offer. CBS is still figuring it out and mostly has settled on that midday slot for their SEC match-ups.

Full disclosure, this is a bigger project than I imagined but I want to figure more out because the rules seem to be working but the whole TV of the sport is also fighting it. The quest will continue in the offseason and into next season and I hope you’ll roll with me as we figure out so often it takes close to four hours to play sixty minutes.

Cheers!!!