- How Many Officials In A College Football Game
- How Many Games Does College Football Play
- How Many Possessions In A College Football Game Today
- Most Points Scored In A College Football Game
- How Many Games In A College Football Season
- How Many Possessions In A College Football Game
- How Many Possessions In A College Football Games
Explosiveness, efficiency, field position, finishing drives, and turnovers are the five factors to winning football games. If you win the explosiveness battle (using PPP), you win 86 percent of the time. If you win the efficency battle (using Success Rate), you win 83 percent of the time. As of the end of the 2017 NFL season, every NFL Team plays 4preseason games and 16 regular season games.
In football, each team goes back and forth with 'possessions.' All that means is that each team's offense gets a chance to control the football. When a team's offense has the ball, they are considered to have 'possession' because they are dictating the scoring. There will be a total of 24.7 possessions, or about 12 per team and 3.2 of them (13 percent) will end in turnovers. There will be 2.3 fumbles, but only 1.2 of those fumbles (50.7 percent) will be lost (because fumbles are recovered randomly, as these numbers demonstrate). Two interceptions will be thrown. The opening weekend of college football's 2018-19 bowl season was nothing special. Fresno State picked up a nice win over Arizona State, and Eastern Michigan lost by a one-possession. How many teams can truly make the College Football Playoff in 2018? It’s a legitimate question to ask. Analysis Breakdown of Overtime Statistics For College Football submitted. Total Game: 602. So it'd be a reasonable assumption to think that of those 160 zero-point first possessions, virtually all were either missed field goals or forced turnovers?
One morning last week, a plane left Los Angeles at 8:01 a.m. PDT. It was carried across the country by an extraordinary tailwind and made it all the way to Washington, D.C. by 3:02 p.m. ET. Total flight time: 4 hours and 1 minute.
Later that day, a football game between Florida State and Ole Miss kicked off at 8:06 p.m. It smacked into the sport’s ordinary headwinds—short touchdown drives, long television breaks and a longer halftime—and the fourth quarter wasn’t over until 12:10 a.m. Total game time: 4 hours and 4 minutes.
It was the most absurd sign yet of the sport’s creeping bloat: You can fly across the country in the time it takes to play a regulation college-football game these days.
The average length of college football games has increased steadily since 2008. But after two years that produced the longest non-overtime games in the sport’s history, this season is on pace for yet another uptick. Through two weeks, the average game has lasted 3 hours and 26 minutes, according to Stats LLC, which is 15 minutes longer than the 1996 season, 20 minutes longer than the 2006 season and even four minutes longer than the record-breaking suffering of the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
By the time Saturday games are over, “I fully expect the next face you see is Joel Osteen starting his Sunday-morning sermon,” said SEC Network analyst Paul Finebaum.
College games seem even more endless in comparison to the NFL games a day later. For all the flaws of the average NFL game—player safety, coaching blunders, the quality of the actual football—length is not one. NFL games lasted 3 hours and 8 minutes last year. Which was the same as 2013. And 2005. And 1999.
But in college, as attention spans are getting shorter, football games are getting longer.
The game last week that took more time than a transcontinental trip, according to FlightAware, was that shootout between Florida State and Ole Miss. What took so long? All the stuff that wasn’t football. In more than four hours, there was a grand total of 16 minutes and 12 seconds of action, according to a Wall Street Journal film review.
Pac-12 Conference commissioner Larry Scott would like games to be closer to three hours than three and half hours to “adapt to the changing habits and tastes of consumers,” he said. “If we start seeing a lot of games more than 3:15, 3:20, 3:30, we start getting concerned,” he said. But before introducing any rule changes, he believes it’s important for the sport to reach a consensus view about the ideal game length through a competition committee that’s being formed by the NCAA.
“The length of the game will be one of the key agenda items,” Scott said.
How Many Officials In A College Football Game
But the nature of college football —with its variety of playing styles and different officiating crews—makes it trickier to regulate than the NFL. One strange truth of this sport is that faster offenses lead to slower games. More first downs result in more clock stoppages, and more touchdowns result in more television commercials. In other words, the more exciting a team is, the more excruciating its games are.
It’s almost impossible now for a high-scoring, highly entertaining matchup to wrap up in a reasonable amount of time. That’s why it makes sense that one fast team is most responsible for the sport’s epic slowdown: Baylor.
Last season, of the hundreds of schools that play major college football, Bowling Green’s non-overtime games were the longest, clocking in at 3:39. Not far behind was Tulsa at 3:36 and then Baylor at 3:34. Baylor, though, was partly to blame for both Bowling Green and Tulsa: All three schools used the Baylor offense to put up ginormous statistics that dragged out their games.
How Many Games Does College Football Play
Syracuse was bound for that list this season as soon as it hired former Bowling Green coach Dino Babers. His very first Atlantic Coast Conference game last week against Louisville took 3 hours and 55 minutes—longer than any Syracuse game in the previous three seasons.
It doesn’t take two such teams to turn a game into a slog, either. Saturday’s game between Alabama and Ole Miss is a perfect example. Last year, up-tempo Ole Miss dealt the national champions their only loss. It was also Alabama’s only game that crossed the four-hour mark.
Related
- College Football’s 2019 Grid of ShameAugust 29, 2019
- College Football’s ‘Free Agency’ Still Involves Lots of Red TapeAugust 28, 2019
- Nick Saban Wins National Titles. He Loses Assistant Coaches.August 18, 2019
- College Football Turns to an Unlikely Savior: Beer, Beer and More BeerAugust 16, 2019
Some fans have found an outlet for their ire. It’s the same person it has always been: the referee. It’s common at Louisiana State, for example, to hear fans raining boos on the red-capped official who coordinates TV breaks and stops games for several minutes at a time.
“At home, it’s nothing,” said Ritchie Quinn, an LSU season-ticket holder. “In the stadium, it’s an eternity.”
How Many Possessions In A College Football Game Today
Finebaum put it another way. “It’s like waiting for a root canal,” he said.
—Max Cohen and Andrew Beaton contributed to this article.
Write to Ben Cohen at ben.cohen@wsj.com
Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
There may not be a better representation of college football matters so much to so many than the annual Army vs. Navy game. It is a matchup rich with tradition and a rivalry that stands the test of time.
The first showdown on the gridiron between these two service academies took place in 1890, with Army winning 32-16. They wouldn't meet again until 1899. They played 30 times between then and 1927, and have played every season since 1930; even during World War II.
Over that time the series has been split pretty evenly, with Navy holding a 60-51-7 advantage. Both teams tend to dominate in spurts, with Navy recently winning 14 straight between 2002 and 2015. The Knights put an end to that streak -- the longest winning streak by either team in series history -- in 2016 with a 21-17 win and followed it up last season with a thrilling 14-13 victory.
Will history repeat itself, or will Navy get back in the winning column against its biggest rival? Let's break the game down and make a prediction on the outcome, against-the-spread, of course. But first, a reminder: The 2018 Army-Navy Game will air live nationally on CBS and stream live on CBSSports.com, the CBS Sports App and fuboTV (try for free) beginning at 3 p.m. ET on Saturday.
Army-Navy Game breakdown
It's been a tale of two very different seasons for Army and Navy in 2018. Army enters this game with a record of 9-2, with its only two losses coming to Duke in the season opener and an overtime loss to Oklahoma. Yes, that's right, Army nearly beat a team that reached the College Football Playoff. With a win against Navy, the Knights will not only retain the Commander-in-Chief's trophy, but they'll win 10 games in a season for the second year in a row, something the Knights have never done before. Their only other 10-win season in history came in 1996.
As for Navy, it's been a rough season, but one the Midshipmen are hoping ends on a high note. They enter this game with a record of 3-9, meaning that no matter what happens, 2018 will be Navy's first losing season since 2011, and only the second of Ken Niumatalolo's tenure as captain of the ship.
Most Points Scored In A College Football Game
Army will win if ... It sticks to the gameplan and takes care of the football. Army has only lost four fumbles this season, which is something of a miracle considering it's an option team pitching the ball with regularity, but it's the second season in a row the Knights have only lost four fumbles. More often than not, the team that does the better job taking care of the football wins this game.
How Many Games In A College Football Season
Navy will win if ... Like Army, Navy will need to take care of the football. Unlike Army, Navy's turned the ball over more often, as its lost 10 fumbles. Aside from that, though, the key for Navy will be finding ways to make big plays on offense. Whether it's on the ground or through the air, Navy will need to find success with explosion plays to pull off the upset.
How Many Possessions In A College Football Game
Game prediction, picks
How Many Possessions In A College Football Games
This game is historically close because of the fact both teams run an option offense, which chews clock and limits possessions for either side. It's hard for either team to get a big lead, which makes Navy an appealing option with this spread. Since the 2011 season, only one Army-Navy Game has been decided by more than seven points, and the underdog covers more often than not. In fact, the underdog has covered four straight in this series, and in seven of the last nine. Look for it to become eight of ten this year. Pick: Navy (+6.5)