Since we have a lot of new teams and players this spring and many that may only be familiar with our winter rules, I figured I’d give a quick summary of the differences between our summer season rules and winter season rules.

 

The biggest difference is how game timing works.

 

In the summer, the game clock stops on all scores, changes of possession, time outs, and accepted penalties if the non-offending team does not request to run the clock.

 

The first two are relatively straight forward, but just for total clarity, the game clock stops on a touchdown, safety, or turnover (punt, interception, turnover on downs) and it remains stopped until the next offensive snap on a non-convert play.

 

So, on a touchdown the clock remains stopped from the moment of the score, through the convert, and until the team that was scored on snaps the ball on their offensive possession.

 

In regards to the specifics of the play clock during the game, the play clock gets reset to 45 seconds as soon as the previous play ends. So, once you’re tackled or the ball falls incomplete, that 45 seconds is counting. As soon as the scorekeeper begins to enter a play the clock resets and runs.

 

Any time the game clock would stop, the play clock also stops. It then gets set to 25 seconds, but only starts running on the whistle to indicate the play is in. For example, on a convert all clocks are stopped until the ball is set for the try and the referee blows in the play, at which point the offense has 25 seconds to snap the ball. This is similarly true on changes of possession and accepted penalties.

 

On that note, accepted penalties also stop the game clock; however, the team accepting the penalty always has the option to ask that the game clock does not stop and if they request this then the play clock will run on the play in whistle. This is to prevent a team from gaining any advantage by taking penalties either by stopping the clock or in an attempt to run the clock.

 

Our winter timing rules are all due to field costs. During the winter season we only have 1 hour slotted for games and that includes the time needed to get the teams off the field and the incoming teams on the field. You may notice that leagues that play indoors have games that last on average about 50 minutes from first whistle to last whereas our summer games tend to last about 75 minutes or more. 

 

Summer game lengths can vary due to the number of scores, turnovers, penalties, and timeouts called (since they stop the game clock), but in general 75 minutes is usually on the low end of the length of a game. Because we are not pressed for time in the summer, our rules allow us to prevent teams from killing the clock in somewhat questionable manners, such as taking an inordinate number of penalties.

 

This is something that I find frustrating in indoor leagues as a team with the lead taking a penalty (particularly on offense) may hurt that drive, but it also kills another 30-45 seconds of the game as the bags are moved and the penalty is administered and that time is likely more valuable to the other team than the benefit of a 5 yard penalty. This, in essence, rewards a team for committing a penalty.

 

Finally for timing, teams have 3 timeouts per half and they stop the game clock until the next offensive snap. In the winter teams only have 1 timeout per half and this only resets the play clock to 25 seconds and does not stop the game clock. This is once again due to the time constraints of the cost per hour for an indoor field.

 

In the summer, timeouts last for 15 seconds before the next play is blown in at which point the offense has a normal play clock to snap the ball.

 

One last element of timing that is different between the two rulesets is that in the summer we have no “5 last plays”. Since teams can effectively control the clock much more than they can in the winter, it is unnecessary for us to have an arbitrary number of untimed downs.

 

The last play of a summer game is determined exactly as the first of the last 5 plays in the winter would be. That is that a play blown in after the game clock has expired will be the last play.

 

For some additional clarification on that, as an example, let’s say a play is blown in with 1 second on the game clock and the ball is snapped 10 seconds later. After that play is over, the referee will announce the following play will be the last play as the game clock did not expire before the previous play was blown in, but it has expired before the upcoming play is blown in.

 

A play is blown in once the ball and the entirety of the offense is on their side of the line of scrimmage.

 

The last difference between our winter league and our outdoor seasons is in overtime. In the winter, the team with the first possession must go for 1 point and the second team must go for 2 points if the first team succeeded. This is to make sure that any team scoring in OT will guarantee that the overtime will end that round. This is, once again, due to time constraints. No such restrictions exist in our outdoor leagues and teams are free to attempt to match their opponents' score in overtime.

 

Well, that’s it! It’s all about time and I for one am happy to be back with our longer summer games, even if we’ve started out with some very warm weather!