NCAA takes small steps in latest rules changes.(changes to college football regulations)(Brief Article)

It's much ado about nothing, really, this rules change stuff. Perhaps you didn't even hear the news about the changes to be implemented in college football this fall. It would be understandable, given the minimal impact they figure to have.

The NCAA Football Rules Committee recently revisited issues such as timeouts, safety and sportsmanship. What, no one wanted to talk about changing the shade of brown on the football or length of each player's shoelaces?

Among the eight innocuous changes we can look forward to is one that will allow teams to request a 30-second timeout instead of the usual 90 seconds--a move made to hasten the pace of the game.

"There are situations when a team simply wants to stop the game clock to save time or to avoid a delay-of-game penalty before the play clock expires," says Kansas State A.D. Max Urick, who chairs the committee. "This change will enable timeouts taken in those instances to be brief and not interrupt the flow of the game."

In another attempt to keep the pace moving, the committee voted to kill radio and television timeouts in overtime.

"Once the overtime starts and the excitement builds, any extended breaks not related to normal game activity are detrimental to most parties involved, especially the teams and spectators," Urick says.

That's fine and dandy, but if fans already have sat through a four-quarter game, what are a few more minutes during a timeout or in overtime?