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The four hour game?

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MC63

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May 29, 2001
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Although the story didn't get into high school games, today's Wall Street Journal contains a report that college football games are continuing to get longer, and this year average 3:20. The recent Bama/Ole Miss game went 4:05.

Last year, 16 games exceeded 4 hours and 18 are expected this year.

Meanwhile, pro games have leveled off at 3:07 -- pretty much the same length as 20 years ago. (I have trouble believing this -- CBS Sunday night shows are notoriously late -- even when time has been allotted for the late game.)

I haven't seen any stats on Illinois high school games, but I do notice that the IHSA championship games (other than the first one of the day) always seem to start much later than scheduled.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-rise-of-the-four-hour-college-football-game-1443468601
 
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mc140

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May 29, 2001
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College game stops the clock on first down. That adds a lot of time.

High School games are getting closer to 3 hours than 2 with all the passing now.
 
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eireog

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ND home games on NBC seem longer than normal and have since they've had the NBC contract . I don't have any numbers to back it but a road ND game seems to get done quicker than a home game . Is NBC squeezing more TV timeouts in ?
 
C

Catch--22

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I guarantee ND has the highest average home game duration. Every game is pushing 630pm by time it ends
 
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Bwm57

Bwm57

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Games on the Big Ten network are awful too. They destroy the flow of the game with the constant TV timeouts.
 
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UlbKA91

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Sep 22, 2015
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The big jump in the NFL occured starting in 1986 - the first year of instant reply. I remember that Meadowlands and New England 1pm kickoffs in November and December were guaranteed to end in darkness because of the novelty of challenges.
 
G

GMAN81

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Aug 21, 2013
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mc140 said:
College game stops the clock on first down. That adds a lot of time.

High School games are getting closer to 3 hours than 2 with all the passing now.
Click to expand...
No question, MC140, the stoppage of the clock on first downs really slows the game down at the college level. It always has in my opinion. I think it should continue to roll at both the HS and college level to keep the game moving. I am not sure of the rule, but in the NFL when a guy goes out of bounds the clock does re-start outside the 5:00 mark when the ball is placed on the line of scrimmage. Not sure if that changed to outside the 2:00 mark. Do they do that in college?

Also, there is no question we have far more commercials in all sports now which adds times to games. The Sunday and Monday night football games have tons of commercials. It is crazy.
 
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