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 10Louisiana Tech at Middle Tennessee, 7 p.m., CBS Sports NetworkADVERTISEMENTCoastal Carolina at Appalachian State, 7:30 p.m., ESPN2Liberty at Jacksonville State, 7:30 p.m., ESPNUWednesday, October 11UTEP at FIU, 7:30 p.m., ESPN2Sam Houston at New Mexico State, 9 p.m., CBS Sports NetworkThursday, October 12West Virginia at Houston, 7 p.m., FS1SMU at East Carolina, 7:30 p.m., ESPNFriday, October 13Tulane at Memphis, 7 p.m., ESPNFresno State at Utah State, 8 p.m., CBS Sports NetworkStanford at Colorado, 10 p.m., ESPNSaturday, October 14Syracuse at Florida State, Noon, ABCGeorgia at Vanderbilt, Noon, CBSIndiana at Michigan, Noon, FoxArkansas at Alabama, Noon, ESPNGeorgia Southern at James Madison, Noon, ESPN2Temple at North Texas, Noon, ESPNUIowa State at Cincinnati, Noon, FS1Kent State at Eastern Michigan, Noon, CBS Sports NetworkMichigan State at Rutgers, Noon, BTNOhio State at Purdue, Noon, PeacockNavy at Charlotte, 2 p.m., ESPN+Toledo at Ball State, 2 p.m, ESPN+Cal at Utah, 3 p.m., Pac-12 NetworkOregon at Washington, 3:30 p.m., ABCTexas A&M at Tennessee, 3:30 p.m., CBSIllinois at Maryland, 3:30 p.m., NBCBYU at TCU, 3:30 p.m., ESPNFAU at USF, 3:30 p.m., ESPN2Kansas at Oklahoma State, 3:30 p.m., FS1Troy at Army, 3:30 p.m., CBS Sports NetworkWake Forest at Virginia Tech, 3:30 p.m., ACC NetworkUMass at Penn State, 3:30 p.m., BTNFlorida at South Carolina, 3:30 p.m., SEC NetworkAkron 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., FoxOhio at NIU, 4 p.m., ESPNUUNLV at Nevada, 5 p.m., Mountain West NetworkSan Jose State at New Mexico, 6 p.m., Mountain West NetworkLouisville at Pittsburgh, 6:30 p.m., The CWAuburn at LSU, 7 p.m., ESPNMarshall at Georgia State, 7 p.m., ESPN2Wyoming at Air Force, 7 p.m., CBS Sports NetworkAnd 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-deeperGO DEEPERAre 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.
