College Football Question: False Starts / Delay of Games

OK, during the Tulane game, Texas used the "delay-of-game" strategy to run some clock and end the game. This also happened once by accident in the K-State game with a false start on Texas' last drive.

Each time, the clock is running, we run the play clock to 0, take a delay/false start penalty, and the clock runs another 25 seconds again. My question is why can't a team just take 18 delay of game / false-start penalties and run out 8-10 minutes of clock if they are up by 5 or 6 points?

At first, we thought it was maybe not during the last 2 minutes, but we used that against Tulane to end the game. It happened in a close game (K-State, also happened against us in the Colorado B12 title game) and in a blowout (Tulane). It happened when we did it on purpose (Tulane) and then by accident (K-State).

Anyone know the rule on this?

 

Probably has something to do with an offensive losing clock as well as yards when the game is under 2 or 5 minutes. I know in the NFL when the time is winding down at the end of the half or game if the offense commits a penalty they run the clock down.

That's what we thought, but Texas did it both with 4 minutes left (K-State) and under a minute left (Tulane). In this case, though, running the clock down due to an offensive penalty is even better because the offense is trying to run clock.

Of course I've never seen a team deny a DoG penalty, so I don't know if that's even allowed, since it occurs before the snap (like a false start)


Yup - neither delay or false start penalties can be declined.

 

I don't believe the game clock is suppose to start after a delay of game penalty or a false start. Against the Tulane game, the clock keeper was being merciful by letting the game clock run.

I dunno -- it happened against K-State on Saturday and Colorado in the B12 title game, and f4p said it happened against OU last year as well. It seems weird for no one to complain in critical situations (teams down by 1 possession with 5 or less minutes left).