The talk about player safety has heated up recently among all the conferences. Some are wanting to reduce the number of games to avoid the wear and tear on players. That is all well and good except for one thing - reducing games reduces revenue.
Always follow the money. So what is much more likely to happen soon is shortening the individual games by use of running clocks after first downs and out of bounds plays outside of the last 2 minutes of each half. It's also a slight possibility they may shorten quarters down to 12 minutes, as well as working on rules to reduce the faking of injuries which slow down games.
Viewership goes down when the games are too long, especially when games are blowouts and viewers check out early. These changes all fit neatly into a better TV product as well. Shorten the games but keep (or even increase) the number of games to keep the revenue flowing. Like I said, always follow the money.
Always follow the money. So what is much more likely to happen soon is shortening the individual games by use of running clocks after first downs and out of bounds plays outside of the last 2 minutes of each half. It's also a slight possibility they may shorten quarters down to 12 minutes, as well as working on rules to reduce the faking of injuries which slow down games.
Viewership goes down when the games are too long, especially when games are blowouts and viewers check out early. These changes all fit neatly into a better TV product as well. Shorten the games but keep (or even increase) the number of games to keep the revenue flowing. Like I said, always follow the money.
