Is college football owning NFL rulebook? CFB set for massive overhaul with executives mulling controversial rule change

College football could take a page out of the NFL's book, the rule book that is. On Monday morning, Sports Illustrated's Ross Dellenger reported that college football executives are looking into ways to shorten the lengths of games. There are four different rules that they are reviewing as options to do just that.

Of the four rules that are being considered, two of them are very minor and would barely even make an impact on the game. The first is that teams could no longer use consecutive timeouts, which is a tactic used by coaches when the opposing team is attempting a field goal, better known as 'icing the kicker'.

The second change would be if the first or third quarter ends with a defensive penalty, then there wouldn't be an untimed down to serve the penalty, it would be moved to the next quarter.

The third rule change that college football executives are considering is taken right out of the NFL rule book. The clock would no longer stop after the first downs. This technique is solely used in the NCAA and extends games dramatically.

The average college football game has at least 20 first downs, all of which stop the clock. While this is a major rule change, it could be quite beneficial in shortening the lengths of games.

The final rule change that executives are reviewing involves incomplete passes. Right now in college football, the clock stops on an incomplete pass and doesn't restart until the ball is snapped. That would change with the clock restarting when the ball is placed at the line of scrimmage.

College football executives aren't considering these rule changes to simply shorten games and maintain fan engagement. It's for player safety as well, which has become an increasingly hot button issue.

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How much longer is a college football game than an NFL game?

Football fans have noticed that watching an NFL games takes much less time than it does to watch a college football game. But how much longer? The average college football game is about three and a half hours.

On the other hand, the average NFL game is three hours. But in recent seasons, the majority of the games have gone below the three-hour mark.

Both college and NFL games have 15-minute quarters and 40-second play clocks. The stoppage of play under certain circumstances does add at the very least 30 minutes to every game. Meaning that college football players are out on the field for that much longer and in a position to suffer from an injury.