Yahoo Sports College football catchup: How the sport has changed ahead of the 2023 season
The Big 12 has four new members while there are 15 head coaches set to coach their first games at the FBS level
The 2023 college football season is less than a month away.
The first real games of the 2023 season begin in less than four weeks when Notre Dame takes on Navy in Ireland. And, as always, there have been some significant changes in the world of college football over the offseason. Here's a brief overview of what's new ahead of the 2023 season.
The clock will run after most first downs
The most significant rule change ahead of the 2023 season was to a longstanding college football tradition.
The clock will keep running after the majority of first downs in games this season. The clock has stopped after every first down since 1968, but will keep running after all first downs in the first 28 minutes of each half. The clock will stop until the ball is ready for play after first downs inside the final two minutes of the second and fourth quarters.
The change was made as college football leaders keep looking for ways to shorten game times as games routinely take over three hours to complete. According to the NCAA’s Playing Rules Oversight Panel, the clock change will remove fewer than 10 plays per game.
Additionally, teams are now prevented from taking consecutive timeouts. It’s no longer legal for a team to use all three of its timeouts in a row to ice an opposing kicker.
New Big 12 and AAC members
By now, you probably know that it’s the first season for BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF In the Big 12. The conference will have 14 teams for this football season before Oklahoma and Texas depart for the SEC over the summer.
But you may be less familiar with the steps the AAC took to replace the Bearcats, Cougars and Knights. Instead of adding three teams to replace them, the AAC added six schools to create a 14-team football conference.
Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, UAB and UTSA all moved to the AAC from Conference USA. It was clear the AAC valued major markets in its expansion process. In addition to Charlotte, new teams are from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, Houston and San Antonio and the greater South Florida area.
Goodbye to divisions in the ACC
The Pac-12 ditched divisions in 2022. Now it’s the ACC’s turn to do the same.
The ACC title game will no longer pit the champions of the Atlantic and Coastal divisions after the conference decided in the summer of 2022 to get rid of the divisional format. The change could mean that Clemson and Florida State meet in the title game. They’ve both been in the Atlantic division and unable to play each other for the conference title. They can meet both in the regular season and in the ACC title game in 2023 if they finish 1-2.
The ACC’s move means the SEC and Big Ten are the only Power Five conferences with divisions in 2023, but that will change next season when each conference expands to 16 teams and scraps its divisions.
The Mountain West is also ditching its Mountain and West divisions for 2023.
Hello Sam Houston and Jacksonville State
Conference USA added four teams to replace the six it lost and two of them are new to the FBS level. Jacksonville State and Sam Houston have moved up from the second-tier FCS to make Conference USA a nine-team league for 2023.
Both teams have been very successful at the FCS level. Jacksonville State — coached by former West Virginia and Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez — went 9-2 in 2022 and won at least 10 games every season from 2013-17. Sam Houston won the 2020 national title and made the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs in 2021. The Bearkats will have a lot of experience on the roster for their first FBS season; numerous seniors redshirted in 2022 to retain eligibility in 2023.
The other two teams joining Conference USA are Liberty and New Mexico State. Both teams were independents in 2022. Kennesaw State will make the leap from the FCS level in 2024 to bring Conference USA to 10 teams.
Conference USA will also play numerous games on weeknights in October. It's wonderful news for those of us who like to watch football every day as there will be at least one college football or NFL game every day from Oct. 4 through Nov. 21.
15 new coaches at the FBS level
Deion Sanders is the most recognizable of the 15 coaches who will be coaching their first FBS games this fall. The Colorado coach came to Boulder from Jackson State out of the FCS and is one of three new coaches in the Pac-12 along with Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham and Stanford’s Troy Taylor.
The Big Ten has two first-time head coaches in 2023 with Northwestern interim coach David Braun and Purdue coach Ryan Walters. There are five brand-new coaches in the AAC, including former Michigan assistant Biff Poggi (Charlotte) and former NFL QB Trent Dilfer (UAB).
Big-name transfers at new schools
In case you need a recap of all the familiar faces in new places in 2023, we’ve got you covered. Former Michigan QB Cade McNamara is now at Iowa while former Wake Forest QB Sam Hartman is set to enter the season as Notre Dame’s starter. Ex-Michigan State wide receiver Keon Coleman is now at Florida State and LSU added multiple impact transfers on defense. Click here for a full recap of all the quarterback movement through the transfer portal, here for a list of the best offensive transfers and here for a list of the top defensive transfers of the offseason.
