Man, the NCAA needs to do something about the play clock. Just in the Sugar Bowl alone, that's two years in a row where, at the end of the game, the outcome could have been decided because of inconsistent spotting of the ball and starting of the play clock. Granted, it didn't change the outcome but it certainly could have. Last year, I have NEVER seen officials spot the ball so fast as they did when LSU was trying to run out the clock. I remember being at the game and thinking, that's it, we can run it out once we got the ball back. And that's not just me looking through P&G glasses. Once I watched the replay, the announcers even commented on it.

Then tonight, they just let the clock keep going while the players were scuffling. Then they finally stopped it, then gave AU a full 25 seconds to run their play. I personally would like to see the NFL rule adopted where the 40 second clock is started as soon as the previous play is blown dead.

Yep, that's why the NFL went to the 40 second clock. Too much inconsistency in spotting the ball in a timely manner. And it also speeds the game up.

The NCAA needs to take a look at doing that...

Game clock

Another clock issue that I have never understood is re-starting the game clock after a penalty at the end of a game. The rule states that if the clock is running when a penalty is called on a play, it will re-start when the ball is put back in play (unless it is a delay of game penalty). A team trying to run out the clock could run the play clock (with the game clock running) down to say 1 or 2 seconds and then commit a false start. When the ball is put back in play they get another 25 seconds to run off of the game clock without running a play. What's up with this and why haven't teams used this loop hole?