This year the NCAA has changed the rule regarding the stoppage (or rather the non-stoppage) of the play clock after a football team makes a first down (except with less than two minutes in the 2nd and 4th quarter). This has led some to question if this is having an impact of the number of plays during a game. It has, but not by much. Below is the data since the 2015 season (excluding the COVID-19 season of 2020). The columns are first, the season, second the average number of plays per game through week 1 for each season (yes, it can be more than one game if teams play in week "0"); the difference from the prior season (or since 2019 for the 2021 row) and whether the difference is statistically significant using a Welch's t-test among successive time periods. As you can see the rule has resulted in about 1.6 fewer plays, but that is not even the largest drop. So I am left to conclude that through week 1, the there are fewer plays, but I am unable to say that the rule change has had a statistically significant impact.
| Season | W1 Ave. Plays | Difference | Stat. Sign.? |
| 2015 | 73.556 | ||
| 2016 | 72.039 | -1.52 | NO |
| 2017 | 73.067 | 1.03 | NO |
| 2018 | 74.197 | 1.13 | NO |
| 2019 | 73.335 | -0.86 | NO |
| 2021 | 70.738 | -2.60 | NO |
| 2022 | 70.527 | -0.21 | NO |
| 2023 | 68.936 | -1.59 | NO |
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