Why not use the NCAA timing rules?

I couldn't begin to give you an answer that made sense. There are rumors we might be getting close to that, including adding the 40 second clock but we'll see.

Main reason was the high school coaches didn't want to lose plays with the "New" (7 years ago) rules about starting the clock after out of bounds plays.

I bet if we adopted the NCAA timing rules en toto, we wouldn't see a big difference in game times from what we have now.

Longer play clock, fewer opportunities for the clock to start on the snap.

How do you figure?

What do you mean by fewer opportunities for the clock to start at the snap? Long times between downs when the clock may not be running?

The 40 second clock was adopted as a way to make the timing between downs more consistent. It actually matches a good pace between the previous play being over and the RFP being blown in under only the 25 second clock.

Add in to that, in NCAA the clock starts on the ready in more situations outside of 2 minutes left in the half. The big one being runners running out of bounds.

Subtract TV timeouts from the college games and I wouldn't be surprised to see timing similar to that of what we have for HS games now.

The NFHS needs to go to the NCAA timing rules. Seriously, when we made the switch from the old timing rules on changes of possession, we ended up adding another 10+ minutes to every game that we still haven't recovered.

Now it's virtually impossible to finish a HS game in under 2 hours when that used to be a regular occurrence.

(Quite frankly, the NCAA timing rules are for show. There's no reason to stop the clock at all on an out of bounds play outside of 2 minutes of either half. Or on a first down.)

NCAA: clock starts on the snap.

Not anymore. UIL has codified the rules in their exceptions and we no longer rely on the page or two from the 2005 rule book. That was a big mess and a bad idea anyway -- we even played the entire 2006 season with 2005 rules. Which meant when we got to 2007, we weren't up on any editorial or other changes made in 2006. I completely missed a couple of rule changes over the next 2 years until we had something happen in a college game.

Next year, UIL is going back to the current NCAA timing rules, though there might be one or two minor exceptions. As mentioned earlier, there is no reason not to start the clock on the ready after an OOB play. Sooner or later, incomplete passes outside of 2 minutes will likely be the same.

I estimate that the clock rule added 15 minutes to my games. More incomplete passes and kickoffs have added about another 20. Our standard 20-min. halftime (used to be 15) plus the mandatory 3-minute warmup have added another 8.

So, my 1:45 average game has turned into about 2:20. It's a good thing I'm getting paid $15 more.

Well that's true when they finally cleaned up the UIL exceptions. It is still a mess I contend. I hope the exceptions are tiny and limited in scope.

By my math, you're able to bill that extra 35 minutes (average) at $25.71/hour. That's a pretty decent wage in most parts of the country! :)

Add in all of the pre, post game and prep work and that hourly wage plunges pretty dramatically.

Today was a day off and I was probably in the books for at least 2 hours today. And it was a light day. Where do I send my bill?

I did a Saturday college game earlier this season where I earned less than $10/hour if you considered my time from when I left the house and when I returned.

Change in the timing rules has little to do with Federation game times. The biggest reason is the increased passing game with more incomplete passes. Add talent inequity like the game I had two or three weeks ago with 10 total TD in the first half and we never get off the field before 10:00 now.