College football fans have long considered TV timeouts at games a nuisance. The red-hatted referee who walks onto the field during every commercial break and stops the game for a preset amount of time before the commentator can return to the action has become a universally hated figure, including mine.

Even though broadcasters and data show that the number of TV timeouts has not increased, it is obvious to every viewer how much they can disrupt the flow of the game. We just want to watch football.

When the NCAA introduced a two-minute warning earlier this year (we don’t call it a “two-minute timeout” as the commentators did on Saturday), the reaction from many fans was that it was simply a ploy to add yet another TV timeout while other rule changes attempt to reduce the number of plays. At the time, officials said that was not the case. The two-minute warning was intended to help game flow by providing a set time for a scheduled TV timeout so that broadcasters don’t have to insert them at inconvenient times to meet their quotas. Implementing the two-minute warning would make the dreaded touchdown ad-kickoff ad sequence less common. (It would also help referees, since many rules change in the final two minutes, including the clock being stopped on first downs.)

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The four FBS games of Week 0 offered a first look at the two-minute warning in college football. Many fans on social media, some of whom only learned about the new rule during the game, expressed their displeasure during the Georgia Tech-Florida State game in particular, once again blaming the change for what felt to them like an increase in timeouts.

So I watched the tape. The verdict: The two-minute warning didn’t result in any additional TV timeouts. Week 0 just had some unusual games.

For background, most college football games have a TV timeout format of 3-4-3-4 or 4-4-4-4 for the number of commercial breaks in each respective quarter. The length of these breaks varies by network and quarter, but in most cases is between 2:00 and 3:20. Sometimes an additional 30-second spot or two is inserted. If you pull out your stopwatch during a game, you will see that the time of each break is exactly the same format, down to the second.

The Georgia Tech-FSU game was broadcast on ESPN as a 3-4-3-4 game, with three TV timeouts in the first and third quarters and four breaks in the second and fourth quarters. That’s exactly how it played out – but in a frustrating order. Here’s what it looked like:

The Yellow Jackets and Seminoles played a fast game with long drives, lots of runs and only seven possessions per team. According to statistician Brian Fremeau, the total of 14 possessions was the fewest in an FBS game since 2020.

Yesterday’s Georgia Tech vs. Florida State game featured just 14 possessions (seven for each team), fewer than any other FBS game since November 28, 2020.

— Brian Fremeau (@bcfremeau) 25 August 2024

As a result, three TV timeouts were called in the final two minutes of the game: one for the two-minute warning and two for Florida State timeouts that stopped the clock. That’s annoying for spectators, teams, fans in the stadium, everyone.

But it wasn’t unusual or different than in the past. It was just a strange game because there were essentially two possessions in the fourth quarter. Georgia Tech scored on the first play of the quarter, Florida State responded with an 8:24 touchdown drive, and then Georgia Tech went on a 6:33 drive that ended with the game-winning field goal.

If you’re wondering if viewers would have left the game with one less TV timeout without the two-minute warning, the answer is no. The broadcast did not go to commercial when Florida State took its final timeout with 55 seconds left. Without the two-minute warning, the final commercial break of the quarter could have taken place there. (Or perhaps ESPN would have gone to commercial three seconds into the fourth quarter, after Georgia Tech’s touchdown. Perhaps they missed that opportunity because the two-minute warning came later in the quarter.)

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If you didn’t like the many commercial breaks at the end of the Georgia Tech-Florida State game, you’re not alone. But in years past, things wouldn’t have been much different. It was just a weird game.

I also watched a second game. SMU-Nevada on CBS Sports Network was a 4-4-4-4 game that actually became 4-4-3-5: The broadcast took five TV timeouts in the fourth quarter because there were only three in the third quarter. Each TV timeout in that game lasted exactly two minutes. (There was an additional 30-second timeout after a touchdown near the end of the first quarter, an option CBS has used in the past for SEC games.)

So no, the two-minute warning does not mean additional TV timeouts. It may not always be noticeable, but it does help the flow of the game early in the period when the networks feel less pressure to skip to commercials. But any time that stoppage occurs with two minutes left, fans will still be unhappy.

If you don’t like the idea of ​​the two-minute warning at all, that’s understandable. I asked SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee about the first experience this weekend and he said it’s not a big adjustment. If your team is ahead, you won’t like it. If you’re behind, you’ll like it. It buys a little more time to make a comeback.

But nobody likes commercials during a game. The contrast between this summer’s Olympic basketball games and a typical NBA or college basketball game with lots of interruptions was a reminder that broadcasts can be more entertaining for fans if the people running the show really want them to be. And in college sports, where the broadcast money funded by those commercials has changed everything and destroyed conferences, fans understandably harbor additional animosity toward the people who keep sending the game to commercials.

As the season progresses, the contribution of the two-minute warning to the flow of play in passing-heavy games with lots of possession may become more apparent. This change is designed to prevent consecutive advert breaks, which even the broadcasters don’t like. So when we introduce the two-minute warning next Saturday, you can be sure you won’t get any extra advert breaks. You’ll just get the usual, annoying amount.

(Photo: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)