college game clock
 

I missed watching the first week or two of the season so probably missed the "interpretation" by the announcers, but was wondering why sometimes the game clock seems to keep running after a runner goes out of bounds. It didn't appear that his forward progress was stopped in bounds in the cases I noticed. I thought I'd heard about a new rule this year regarding this but can't remember for sure and wanted to see if anyone knew what it was.

I cannot speak to the play you are talking about because I did not see it. But the timing rules in college changed last year and allowed for the clock to run on the ready for play after the ball was out of bounds. I am not familiar with the specific details, but this is the second year of those rules. They basically adopted a similar situation as the NFL.

Peace

Is this to make the game go faster, I assume?

That is the goal. The previous rule did this as well, but coaches hated it.

Peace

What was the previous one? I was just a fan then and always remember it starting on the snap once OOB. (But maybe at that point I wasn't paying close enough attention to what was going on.)

I do not remember all the elements, but the clock ran drastically at times like change of possession. I am sure someone remembers all the details, but coaches hated it and the next year the rule changed to what it is now. And if you were a fan and you listened to the announcers, this was a constant topic of conversation.

Peace

With exception of less than two minutes remaining in second and fourth quarters, the game clock starts on the ready when the ball is carried, passed backwards, or fumbled out of bounds. Rule 3-3-e-3.

The clock is only a "normal" football clock in the last 2 minutes of each half. They pretty much adopted the NFL clock to keep the games around 3 hours. I think that it has something to do with this fad they call TV.

The only time that the clock starts on the snap outside of the last 2 minutes of the HALF is a Change of Possession, incomplete pass or a time out. If a player runs out of bounds prior to the last 2 minutes of the half, the clock starts on the ready.

There are really a few more for your outside of the last 2 minutes.
.. such as after any legal kick (there doesn't have to be a change of
possession at the end of this down).
.. after a delay of game..
.. if the play clock get interrupted for whatever reason.
.. start of 2nd or 4th Q (I guess that's too obvious)
.. play ends in the EZ and there is a penalty
.. injury timeout
.. TV timeout

And don't forget the TV clock is NOT the game clock. Sometimes you'll see them run off a few extra seconds here and there to catch up to the game clock.