Florida Gators fans should know these rule changes for 2023

College Football is an ever-evolving sport. We’ve seen it change a ton over the past few years off the field with NIL, and now we’ll see a couple of changes to it on the field. There are a couple of rule changes for the 2023 season that Florida Gators fans should know about.

Before I get into them, I’ll let you know that none of these are groundbreaking changes, but they will impact the game a decent amount.

The rules committee implemented these rules with three goals in mind: to keep the pace of play of the game up, to “moderately reduce” the number of plays in each game, and to create consistency in officiating the game clock.

So, here are the rule changes for this fall.

College football rule changes that Florida Gators fans should know

• The game clock will no longer stop after the offense gains a first down except for in the last two minutes of the second and fourth quarters.
• Teams are no longer allowed to use consecutive timeouts in the same dead ball period. Each team can call one after the other, but one team cannot use two at once.
• Untimed downs will only be permitted at the end of the second and fourth quarters. In the first and third, a penalty on the last snap of the quarter will carry over to the next.
• This one has less impact on the game, but there is now a no-drone policy over the field while players are on the playing surface.
• The field is available to squad members no later than three minutes before the second half, and teams will be organized to keep opposing players separated.
• There are new rules around instant replay when a replay booth official isn’t present, but that doesn’t really apply to the Gators and the rest of the SEC.