The two-minute warning has officially arrived in college football. An NCAA rule change now in effect will mandate a clock stoppage and timeout with two minutes remaining in both halves, which aligns the sport with a long-established NFL protocol.
NCAA leadership approved the change in April with the support of some of the sport's top conferences. However, the arrival of two-minute warning won't necessarily equate to longer game times, as radio and TV partners have been instructed to hold back at least one media timeout to use when the two-minute timeout arrives.
In fact, NCAA coordinator of officials Steve Shaw noted in March that implementing a two-minute warning will help mitigate the prevalence of back-to-back media timeouts, which can stifle a game's rhythm and flow.
For teams attempting to mount comebacks, the two-minute warning can essentially serve as a bonus timeout, stopping the clock and offering them a chance to save a timeout.
"I think it's great," Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said this week on his radio show. "As a positive, we get four timeouts, so I love that. I think there's strategy involved because if you've got one time-out left, how do you manage that? Especially if you have three timeouts, then you probably have a good opportunity to maybe burn one of those because, typically, you wouldn't really start using your timeouts until you got under that two-minute situation. There's a lot to be thought through, but I feel like we have a good plan."
2024 @NCAAFootball Playing Rules Update
— SEC Officiating (@SECOfficiating) August 29, 2024
▪️ Two-Minute Timeout#SECFB x @SEC pic.twitter.com/EkT7bjtu1W
The implementation of the two-minute warning is just the latest change to clock rules in college football. Last year brought the end of the long-established practice of stopping the clock to move the chains after first downs. The only exceptions are when under two minutes remain in either half.
