These Rule Changes will Impact LSU & Ragin’ Cajun Games This Year

Louisiana football fans have only a few more days to wait. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette Ragin Cajuns are set to open play in their 2023 college football season on September 2nd. The LSU Tigers will open their 2023 college football season a day later.

And while the teams are going through their fall drills in preparation for the season opener fans need to be aware that the game they see on the field this fall will look a little different than the game they have seen in previous years. The changes to the rule book are subtle but I guarantee you that by the end of the year, both the Tigers and the Cajuns will have won or lost a game because of one of these tiny tweaks in the rule book.

The changes we are writing about today were actually adopted back in April. The purpose of the rule changes was to basically speed the game up. Anyone who has ever watched the SEC Game of the Week on CBS knows just how long a college football game can be drawn out. But these changes won't affect CBS's ability to overfill the game with commercials and mindless banter by the announcers.

The changes approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel, however, should allow the 2:30 SEC game to be over before the 7:00 pm SEC game starts. Here's what fans will want to be looking for and not screaming at their televisions or in the stands about.

NCAA College Football Rule Change #1:

The play clock will not stop after first downs. This rule makes the college game more consistent with the NFL rule book. The only time the clock will stop after a first down is in the final two minutes of each half. So, a team needing to save time and move the ball down the field will have to either get the ball out of bounds to stop the clock or will have to have practiced getting reset in a hurry.

NCAA College Football Rule Change #2:

Teams may no longer call consecutive timeouts. You usually see this practice at the end of a half or the end of a game when one team is attempting to "ice" the other team's kicker. The practice very seldom works but it can add a good five or ten minutes to the final 30 seconds of a football game. For those who need to go to the bathroom and still want to see the end of the game, we applaud this rule change.

NCAA College Football Rule Change #3:

This rule change basically ends the practice of the "untimed down". Should a foul or other circumstance occur at the end of the first or third quarter rather than running a play with no clock that play will be moved into the following quarter. This will be for the first and third quarters only the untimed down will still be available to handle any circumstances that arise at the end of the first half or at the end of the game itself.

It should be interesting to watch as the season begins how teams adjust to these rule changes. The consensus by far suggests that the clock no longer stopping after a first down will be the rule that has the biggest effect on the outcome of games, at least during the early part of the season.  This will make those long fourth-quarter comeback drives that much harder yet that much more rewarding.

Make sure you know these rule changes before you take your seat in the stands or in front of the television. You don't want to be yelling at the referees unnecessarily. But when you're right about the rules, please, give them an ear full.  Incidentally, all rule changes for the NFL will be handled by that league's scriptwriters since we all know it's just one big high school musical with better actors, right?