How many BA'ers recall in the early 2000s when the NCAA (no doubt at the behest of ESPN) enacted rules changes to speed up games?
Unintended consequences soon surfaced. Fewer plays from scrimmage. Less excitement.
Some of those rules, as I recall, were rescinded or modified.
Today? If again there is a serious move by the NCAA to speed up games, we can conclude - probably accurately - that again ESPN/ABC is urging changes so that the network can neatly package games into 3-hour slots.
If moves to speed up games again lead to fewer plays from scrimmage and less excitement, my already waning zeal for college football will erode further.
To be sure there are ways to shrink the amount of air games consume. Most if not all, though, would be anathema to ESPN/ABC. Examples:
* Eliminate 1 TV timeout per half. Simultaneously reduce the minutes during halftime when the talking heads are blathering and insert the ads that would have run during TV timeouts.
* Impose a limit on the number of "further reviews" of close calls OR impose and enforce a limit on the time that can be used to reach a decision.
Those two changes alone could lop off 15 minutes of air time.
I like your ideas a lot. The amount of time needed to review sometimes takes a lot longer than it ought to. 90 seconds should be more than enough for a replay official to see every available camera angle and make a decision, based on the "inconclusive evidence" concept to overturn a call or not.