The 2026 college football season will have a few rule changes that could impact game length. For the previous three years, I’ve documented the impact timing rule changes have had on the game length. In 2023, the clock no longer stopped after a first down, unless it was the final two minutes of each half. In 2024, a two-minute warning was implemented as a way to “standardize” timing runoffs. 2025 didn’t have any substantial changes, with the introduction of penalties or charged timeouts to teams faking injuries.
For 2026, the targeting rule was amended, but it’s more of an administrative change that won’t have much impact on game length. Players disqualified from a game will be eligible to play in the next game, regardless of when it occurs in the game. Previously, players ejected for targeting in the second half were required to sit out the first half of the next game. In 2026, if a player is ejected a second time, they will miss the first half of the next game. Players who are ejected for targeting three times will miss the entirety of the next game.
There are two additional changes worth noting. First, teams can now call for a fair catch kick. The receiving team can call a fair catch, which allows the team to attempt a field goal or drop kick from the spot of the fair catch. It’s basically a field goal attempt and the defense is required to be 10 yards away from the spot kick. It’s the same rule used in the NFL and high school. An example of how it looks in a game can be seen below.
In theory, that could lead to longer game times, but free kicks are a rare occurrence in the NFL. I don’t expect it to happen very often and certainly not enough to have any impact on game length. The final noteworthy change was that offensive pass interference is now a 10-yard penalty instead of 15 yards. Based on the limited data available, this change is also unlikely to have any impact. Nevertheless, there’s always the possibility that specific rules can be emphasized more in 2026, even if those rules aren’t the new ones for this season.