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This will have a huge impact on the end of games.
Near the end the game, when the trailing team has to give the ball back to B, either by loss of downs, turnover, missed FG, what have you, B can run off an extra 25 seconds before A would have a chance to get it back.
i.e. Instead of the trailing team being able to take 3 timeouts after each of 1st, 2nd and 3rd downs, allowing the team that's ahead to have an entire possession only run 20-25 seconds off of the clock.... the clock will start on the ready before 1st down, meaning that no matter what, the leading team will get at least one play where they can run off the full play clock, and there's nothing that can be about it.
So aside from shortening the game in general, it also will shorten the end of games, and change the entire clock management strategy for coaches in tight ballgames. Considering that clock management is already the most overlooked part of coaching, it's only going to get worse.
Anyone else at the DIII level think we're going to see 2:15-2:30 games this year? These clock changes were designed for DI-A and their huge TV contracts.
How many changes of possession do we see in a typical game? 15-18, possibly more in some offensively challenged games. Now take about 20 seconds of playclock off for each of those. That's 5-6 minutes of GAME clock right there.
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