Big news from the NCAA

The NCAA just announced that it is doing away with some of last season's controversial clock rules for football. Here are the details.

--After a change of possession, the clock will once again start on the snap of the ball rather than at the start of the 25-second clock. Last year the game clock started when the ball was ruled "ready for play." This had the effect of shaving plays and time off of the average game. But there's no telling how many last-minute rallies it wiped out.

--Also on kickoffs, the game clock won't start until the ball is touched by the recieving team inside the field of play. Last year the clock starting running when the ball was kicked, which created an odd tactical advantage for rulebreakers. Teams could run time off the clock by going offside on kickoffs. North Dakota State did that on Nov. 4 against UC Davis. After scoring the go-ahead touchdown in the final seconds, the Bison purposely went offside on the ensuing kickoff. This allowed them to run the remaining time off the clock. UCD, therefore, did not have the chance to run a play from scrimmage.

The NCAA still wants to eliminate dead time in games. It is shortening team time outs to 30 seconds (although TV can still extend those by going to commercial). Also, following commercial timeouts, the play clock will be reset to 15 seconds rather than 25. In addition, kickoffs have been moved back five yards to the 30-yard line, mirroring the NFL. The goal is to create more returns.

There is still some talk of switching to the NFL's play-clock rules, and the NCAA rules committee will study that.