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If college football games feel longer, is it the commercials' fault? We checked the tape
It's the commercials. They're the easy punching bag, the easy excuse.

So it was last year when The Athletic ran a story about college football games taking longer, industry folks pinning the blame on increased offense but fans responding, No, it's the commercials.

College football TV schedule 2023: Dates, kickoff times, networks and streaming

College football is back! Bookmark this page and check back weekly to find the latest kickoff times, TV networks and/or streaming services for each game.

FBS games only. All times in ET. Networks ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and ESPN are bolded.

Tuesday, October 10

Louisiana Tech at Middle Tennessee, 7 p.m., CBS Sports Network

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Coastal Carolina at Appalachian State, 7:30 p.m., ESPN2

Liberty at Jacksonville State, 7:30 p.m., ESPNU

Wednesday, October 11

UTEP at FIU, 7:30 p.m., ESPN2

Sam Houston at New Mexico State, 9 p.m., CBS Sports Network

Thursday, October 12

West Virginia at Houston, 7 p.m., FS1

SMU at East Carolina, 7:30 p.m., ESPN

Friday, October 13

Tulane at Memphis, 7 p.m., ESPN

Fresno State at Utah State, 8 p.m., CBS Sports Network

Stanford at Colorado, 10 p.m., ESPN

Saturday, October 14

Syracuse at Florida State, Noon, ABC

Georgia at Vanderbilt, Noon, CBS

Indiana at Michigan, Noon, Fox

Arkansas at Alabama, Noon, ESPN

Georgia Southern at James Madison, Noon, ESPN2

Temple at North Texas, Noon, ESPNU

Iowa State at Cincinnati, Noon, FS1

Kent State at Eastern Michigan, Noon, CBS Sports Network

Michigan State at Rutgers, Noon, BTN

Ohio State at Purdue, Noon, Peacock

Navy at Charlotte, 2 p.m., ESPN+

Toledo at Ball State, 2 p.m, ESPN+

Cal at Utah, 3 p.m., Pac-12 Network

Oregon at Washington, 3:30 p.m., ABC

Texas A&M at Tennessee, 3:30 p.m., CBS

Illinois at Maryland, 3:30 p.m., NBC

BYU at TCU, 3:30 p.m., ESPN

FAU at USF, 3:30 p.m., ESPN2

Kansas at Oklahoma State, 3:30 p.m., FS1

Troy at Army, 3:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network

Wake Forest at Virginia Tech, 3:30 p.m., ACC Network

UMass at Penn State, 3:30 p.m., BTN

Florida at South Carolina, 3:30 p.m., SEC Network

Akron at Central Michigan, 3:30 p.m., ESPN+

Bowling Green at Buffalo, 3:30 p.m., ESPN+

Miami of Ohio at Western Michigan, 3:30 p.m., ESPN+

Iowa at Wisconsin, 4 p.m., Fox

Ohio at NIU, 4 p.m., ESPNU

UNLV at Nevada, 5 p.m., Mountain West Network

San Jose State at New Mexico, 6 p.m., Mountain West Network

Louisville at Pittsburgh, 6:30 p.m., The CW

Auburn at LSU, 7 p.m., ESPN

Marshall at Georgia State, 7 p.m., ESPN2

Wyoming at Air Force, 7 p.m., CBS Sports Network

And so it is this year when new clock rules were instituted to shorten games, including doing away with stoppages after first downs until under two minutes remain in each half. And it wasn't just UCLA coach Chip Kelly, who told an ESPN reporter at halftime of the Bruins' season opener, "Hope you guys are selling a lot of commercials." After Week 2, The Athletic subscriber Stephen O. posed the following question as a Mailbag submission: “Stew, can you finally admit that these clock rules are nothing more than an excuse to shove more commercials down our throats? “Every single major game was at least three and a half hours!”

In fact, the NCAA says average FBS game length has decreased from 3:22 to 3:16 through Week 3. But The Athletic loves a good conspiracy theory. So we decided to investigate whether there really are more commercials in 2023 college football broadcasts.

In doing so, we learned far more than we anticipated about how in-game commercial breaks work.

go-deeper
GO DEEPER

Are college football's new game clock rules working?

We started with a source who might know a thing or two about the topic: Jim Minnich, a senior VP at Disney who oversees ad sales for all sports properties on ABC/ESPN's networks. We asked him point-blank: Have college football's new clock rules allowed you to insert more commercials?

“The easy answer is no, they have not changed,” he said. “They're consistent year over year. That's the simplest and easier answer.”

Mark Womack, associate commissioner of the SEC, whose job includes game operations, was just as emphatic.

“The concept that we've shortened the game with the first-down rule in order to sell more advertising is completely false,” Womack said.

Case closed.

Or was it? Isn't that exactly what someone who is trying to secretly insert more commercials into football games would say?

We decided to investigate further. But to do so, we needed a crash course in college football commercial breaks.