The people behind insisting that college football’s new use of the two-minute warning ahead of the end of the second and fourth quarters should be called a “two-minute timeout” instead apparently did not realize that decision would spark as much talk as it has. That’s remarkable, as there’s endless talk about any aspect of a broadcast to start with, and this one’s gotten more attention still thanks to comments from CFB and NFL announcers.
The above comments from ESPN’s Rece Davis and NBC’s Mike Tirico took place around Weeks 1 and 2 of the CFB season respectively, but this conversation began even earlier. Around the Week 0 discussion of this, Chris Vannini of The Athletic shared what he had previously been told by NCAA coordinator of officials Steve Shaw on the rationale for the “two-minute timeout” name:
On Saturday, Vannini published a further piece on this, including Shaw’s reaction to the discussion. And what stands out there is that how Shaw and his team didn’t realize this predictable discussion about an apparent CFB need to try and be different from a commonly-accepted football term would go in a predictable fashion:
Shaw’s response, on behalf of the whole committee, was that it’s not a warning because people can see the clock: “We’re not warning anybody of anything, so we’re going to adopt those words,” he said of the “timeout” phrase.
…Two-plus weeks into the season, I checked back in with Shaw. Yes, he has seen the jokes.
“Our TV partners have been pretty good about recognizing the name is a little different than the NFL,” he said. “There’s been jokes here and there, but I think it describes what it really is. It’s that timeout. … We’re not warning anybody. Everybody knows the time. We just named it that.
“We didn’t think that would be a big thing and that anybody would talk about it. But it’s been funny. If it’s brought more attention to it, I don’t know. But I think we’re settled in on the language and everybody gets it.”
The piece goes on to note that not “everybody” gets this the way Shaw claims, though. A Big Ten source told Vannini “The Big Ten would be in favor of using ‘two-minute warning.’ “It is consistent with terminology currently in use and familiar to our fan base.” And Vannini also notes that EA Sports’ College Football 25 uses “two-minute warning,” has not been asked to change it, and has no current plans to.
The argument that Shaw has advanced for this of people being able to see the clock is notable when it comes to the warning’s 1942 origins, in a NFL era where officials kept the game time on the field. But that’s not the only way that language works; it is still fair to call this a “warning” that the half is drawing near to an end, even if everyone can see the clock. And, as Vannini notes, “two-minute timeout” has its own language clarity issues, as that can imply that the timeout lasts for two minutes, but that isn’t necessarily the case (some have run as long as 2:30).
The college football decision to so dramatically deviate from accepted football language (beyond the NFL, the Canadian Football League has a similar “ three-minute warning ,” while the Arena Football League and others have tried a “ one-minute warning “) sparked many wondering if the NFL had copyrighted or trademarked “two-minute warning” in some fashion. Shaw told Vannini he hasn’t heard of that, with the rules committee just starting with “timeout” and thinking that was the best term to use. But that sharply differentiates them from many football fans: more than 73 percent of nearly 3,000 voters in an AA poll on this said it should be the two-minute warning, with another 21 percent saying it didn’t matter and only the remainder actively endorsing “two-minute timeout.”
The overall idea of the two-minute stoppage is a logical one. For one, for TV networks, it gives them a late-in-half ad break they can count on. That lets them be more judicious with TV timeouts earlier in the half and avoid breaking up the game flow as much with hated commercial-kickoff-commercial (or commercial-play-commercial) sequences to ensure they get their booked ads in. (This is not an extra TV timeout/commercial break, just a predictable one.)
Those kinds of sequences aren’t always solved by this stoppage, of course. The NFL has had its own challenges with them despite its long-running two-minute warning and despite commissioner Roger Goodell’s disdain for that sequence . But this approach and its greater certainty on when there will be a stoppage does help, with Shaw noting to Vannini that there was only one TV timeout on back-to-back plays in the season’s early weeks.
This stoppage also provides added clarity for coaches, players, and fans on when the clock changes inside the last two minutes are in effect, and provides a stoppage that can help sustain late-before-half drives. So it seems like a good idea overall, and one that’s largely working.
It’s just remarkable that the people in charge didn’t realize that a wild deviation from accepted football terminology would be talked about. And this is another reminder (see also the ill – fated attempt to “ change the paradigm of New Year’s Eve “) that while NCAA football is a behemoth, it’s not one of the scale where everyone will just go along with what the people in charge want. Now, if they’re so convinced “two-minute timeout” is superior, they can absolutely try that, and try to stick with it (and it seems like that’s their plan, at least for now). But they should have at least expected some of this very predictable blowback.
[ The Athletic ]
The post NCAA coordinator of officials on ‘two-minute timeout’ instead of ‘two-minute warning’: ‘We didn’t think that would be a big thing.’ appeared first on Awful Announcing .
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