Stupid Clock Rules Gone in '07

College football fans all season long were robbed of precious game time - as Saurian Sagacity thoroughly pointed out a couple of weeks ago - and who knows how many teams were robbed of a chance for a last-second comeback?

Well, the NCAA has heard the grumblings of the fans, coaches, media, mascots, bishops, etc. and now they're rightfully getting rid of the stupid clock rules:

Those widely despised game-clock changes the NCAA instituted last year -- the changes that chopped off an average of 14 plays per game, that Texas Tech coach Mike Leach called "stupid" and Michigan coach Lloyd Carr called "the worst rule in the past 50 years" -- are all but gone.

The NCAA Football Rules Committee, which convened this week in Albuquerque, N.M., announced a proposal Wednesday to revert to 2005 standards: No more starting the clock when a ball is kicked or on a change of possession. No more teams having to burn a timeout in the final minutes before they even run a play. No more intentionally lining up offsides on a kickoff to run the clock out as Wisconsin's Bret Bielema did against Penn State last year.

"The changes we made last year, overall, did not have a positive effect on college football at all levels," said committee chair Michael Clark, the head coach at Division III Bridgewater (Va.) College.

You think?

Now if only they'd keep listening to us and give us a damn playoff system...