Ohio State may be playing shorter football games soon

It appears our Buckeye blowout victories will need to wrap up sooner in the coming seasons.

Driving the news: The NCAA Football Rules Committee has proposed several measures to shorten college football games, Axios Sports writes.

State of play: Officials are concerned about the heightened risk of player injury that comes with marathon games featuring snaps that don't affect game outcomes.

• With longer seasons coming after 2024's expansion of the College Football Playoff, the NCAA wants a jump on improving player safety.

One major proposal: Letting the clock run after first downs except in the final two minutes of a half, mirroring the NFL.

• The clock currently stops after a first down until referees reset the chains and spot the ball.
• Another suggestion is to prohibit consecutive timeouts in the same dead-ball period, which are often used to "ice" a field-goal kicker.

By the numbers: The average Football Bowl Subdivision game last season averaged 180 total plays over 3 hours, 27 minutes.

• OSU's 12 regular season games averaged slightly longer at 3 hours, 30 minutes.

The big picture: College football is not the only sport working to achieve shorter game times.

• MLB is implementing several new rules to speed up the pace of play this season, most notably a pitch clock.
• That's something Columbus Clippers fans are well used to by now.