The Numbers Game

The weekly check on how the 40/25 clock rules are impacting the length of games. As always, this information comes from Marty Couvillion of cfbstats.com, the ultimate site for college football stats junkies. Check it out.

Plays per game and points per game were down slightly from Week 10, but the time of games held steady. With about 80% of the season having been completed, there won't be any dramatic shift in the data.

Oklahoma, which has been among the leaders in plays per game, makes another appearance on the list of longest games of the week. Another CBS telecast — Alabama at Louisiana State — is at the top of the list of longest games. Clearly, CBS stands for the Commercial Broadcasting System.

Last but not least, some good news for Volunteer fans. The shortest game of the week was Wyoming at Tennessee.

Marty's weekly look at the average number of plays and time of a game for the past four seasons, plus the Week 11 numbers:         

             G      Plays/G   Time/G   Pts/G
2005     717    140.71      3:21      52.61
2006     792    127.53      3:07      47.53
2007     792    143.42      3:23      55.37
2008     614    134.59      3:11      52.32
Wk 11     55    134.38      3:12      51.09

The longest games of Week 11:
Alabama-Louisiana State: 3:49
Clemson-Florida State: 3:48
Tulane-Houston: 3:45
Oklahoma-Texas A&M: 3:43
Nevada-Fresno State: 3:36
North Carolina State-Duke: 3:35
Cincinnati-West Virginia: 3:35
Marshall-East Carolina: 3:30

The shortest games of Week 11:
Wyoming-Tennessee: 2:38
Colorado State-Air Force: 2:42
Louisiana Tech-San Jose State: 2:45
Bowling Green-Ohio: 2:47
Arizona-Washington State: 2:51
Southern Mississippi-Central Florida: 2:52
Ohio State-Northwestern: 2:53