The NCAA Football Rules Committee endorsed the use of instant replay and made recommendations concerning the length of the game at its February 6-8 meeting in Indianapolis.

After allowing instant replay to review a game official’s call on the field for two seasons on an experimental basis, the committee recommended one procedure for all institutions and conferences that choose to use it. The procedure, used by most Division I-A conferences last season, calls for the replay official in the press box to review all plays on the field and stop the game. The stoppage may occur only if the play is in the list of reviewable plays and has a direct, competitive impact on the game.

The replay recommendation and all other rules proposals the committee made will be considered by the Playing Rules Oversight Panel for final approval before the rules become official.

“First and foremost, we believe instant replay overall has been a tremendous success,” said Charles Broyles, chair of the committee and athletics director and football coach at Pittsburg State University. “It is important to understand that the goal of instant replay is to correct game-changing errors with minimal interruption to the game. We think the system we approved accomplishes that.”

The committee also recommended allowing each team one challenge during the course of the game. The head coach may request a review by signaling for a timeout. If the call on the field is overturned, the coach retains the right to challenge later in the game and is not charged a timeout. If the call is not reversed, the team is charged a timeout and the coach does not have the ability to challenge again.

The Mountain West Conference used a challenge procedure last year, and officials noted that in 35 challenges, the call on the field was reversed five times.

“That may not sound like a lot, but if you have five plays that could change the game if not corrected, that is a pretty strong percentage,” Broyles said. “We thought that providing a coach’s challenge would act as an additional safety net and give the coaches more involvement in the process.”

The committee noted that its rules on electronic equipment have not changed. Television monitors in the coaching booths will continue to be impermissible.

For consistency, the script the referee will use when reporting the results of a replay stoppage was included as part of the rule. Additionally, a visiting nonconference institution is not able to opt out of using replay if the host institution chooses to implement the system.

Length of games

The committee also addressed the growing length of games, which now routinely exceed 31/2 hours — some go beyond four. As a result, the group decided to shorten the halftime allowance from 20 to 15 minutes, with the understanding that conferences or institutions may lengthen halftime upon mutual agreement of the participating teams.

“While we don’t believe halftime needs to be more than 15 minutes,” Broyles said, “we also understand that halftime shows, homecoming and other presentations are important to our institutions. So the allowance is there.”

Three other changes figure to shorten the game without significantly disrupting the normal flow. First, the committee voted to start the clock on kickoffs when the kicker’s foot touches the ball, not when the returning team touches the ball. Second, the committee shortened the length of the kicking tee to one inch, which likely will limit the number of touchbacks on kickoffs. The committee also decided to start the clock when the ball is ready for play on a change of possession. The latter is expected to save about five minutes per game according to limited studies conducted by the Southeastern and Big Ten Conferences.

“We looked at quite a few proposals to shorten the game,” Broyles said. “The consensus was that some were too drastic at this time. Starting the clock on the change of possession is probably our biggest change. We think this is a good change that will help us reach our goals in this area.”

Other highlights

Football Rules Committee

February 6-8/Indianapolis

* Voted to eliminate the use of tinted eye shields during games. The committee made the change after seeing the number of eye shield requests expand rapidly in the past four years. Both the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports and the National Athletic Trainers’ Association supported eliminating the allowance, noting alternatives to the helmet shields if an eye condition warrants protection (for example, contact lenses, sport goggles).

* Changed the enforcement of all procedural fouls committed by the kicking team that occur before a scrimmage kick (except field goals). Now, the receiving team will have the option of accepting the penalty after the return or forcing the kicking team to kick again five yards from the original line of scrimmage.

* Voted to emphasize the equipment rules and instruct officials to send players that are improperly equipped off the field until the equipment is corrected.

* Continued to discuss unsportsmanlike conduct and excessive celebration fouls. The committee continues to believe the vast majority of fouls are called appropriately or addressed by conferences shortly after games. The committee will ask officiating coordinators to continue to educate their officials on celebration fouls to reach consistency.

* Voted to eliminate Rule 3-3-3-f-4, which deals with crowd noise, since the issues the rule was designed to address have been alleviated for the most part. The committee adopted the rule several years ago and noted that in some cases, the officials’ enforcement of the rule has created even more problems.