A few thoughts to wrap up, at long last, the college football season. Is a pick play against the rules or not? For years I’ve been wondering why it’s not flagged; it’s an easy call to make. At the same time, Monday night would have been the worst possible time to start making that call, especially if you have any interest in Clemson football. I thought Tiger quarterback Deshaun Watson was going to roll right on the play, but a pass out in the flat is something I thought was obvious. I knew they wouldn’t just power the ball up the middle. I’ve decided a pick play is like speeding on an open highway; it’ll continue until there’s a serious enough consequence to make it stop. ******* Wait, never mind. We’re talking about college football, and it seems no one worries about consequences in big-time college football. ******* On the last significant play of the game, should Alabama coach Nick Saban have told his defensive backs “look, just grab somebody. We’ll take the penalty, and bring this sucker down to one play?” It’s an interesting question because it seems likely that Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney would have opted to tie the game and send it to overtime. Alabama’s offense had just moved the ball down the field quickly, and the argument could be made the Tide left too much time on the clock. In basketball, we see teams foul to protect a three-point lead late. As tired as Alabama’s defenders had to have been, going to overtime seems, in hindsight, to be a better option. But, hindsight is always 20/20, isn’t it? ******* After the game some Clemson players, as well as Swinney, were thanking God for the victory. Personally, I was doing likewise that the game didn’t go overtime. It was well past my bedtime when the game ended the way it was. Frankly, I’d be a lot more excited about the game, and its instant-classic finish, if it hadn’t ended more than four hours after it started. To be clear, the national championship game was the rule, not the exception. I’ve seen one game from start to finish in the last two years, and I was at Ross-Ade Stadium for that one. I swore afterward I’d always bring a seat cushion. There must be ways to shorten the game to a much more reasonable three hours. The NFL has done it consistently for decades now, and that’s with commercials after every score, kickoff and most change of possessions. Everyone knows college football is a big business, and a four-hour game is diluting the product well past the point of saturation. If a game goes four hours because it’s a 70-63 score, (you know, like in the Big 12!) that’s understandable. Multiple overtimes??Everyone would give that a pass. But when you fill your slow cooker at kickoff, and the food is ready before the game ends, that’s an issue. Thankfully, the game was worth breaking my self-imposed curfew.
