The NCAA approved several NFL-style rule changes on Friday to be implemented for the 2024 college football season. Those rule changes will include adding a two-minute warning at the end of each half, the ability for helmet communication from the sidelines and the ability for players to use tablets to watch films during games.
All games featuring an FBS team in 2024 will allow teams to use coach-to-player communications through a helmet for one player on the field. Several teams could use that technology during the recent bowl season, but it will now be open to everybody for the 2024 season.
Communication from the coaching staff to the designated player will stop with 15 seconds remaining on the play clock, similar to how the NFL does it.
The ability for teams to utilize that technology became a significant talking point following the sign-stealing scandal involving the University of Michigan.
Before using helmet communication technology, teams relied on hand signals and elaborate posters on the sidelines to signal in-play calls.
The change that fans might notice most, however, will be the addition of a two-minute timeout (the two-minute warning) at the end of each half. That was one of the big remaining differences between the NFL and college games. It will give teams playing from behind an extra clock stoppage at the end of games and add another element of clock management to the game.
Slowly but surely, the NCAA game is starting to match what football fans see on Sundays and Mondays in the fall.
With these changes in place, the biggest differences between the NCAA and NFL games will be the one-foot inbounds rule for catches, the need not to touch down when a ball carrier hits the ground and wider hash marks.