Caught in the middle are the officials, who have to find a balance between spotting the ball quickly for the offense and allowing the defense time to set up — something that's increasingly been a problem since fast-paced offenses have cropped up more frequently in college football.
"From the officiating standpoint, we kind of got caught up in this thing and allowed ourselves to sort of get overwhelmed by it," NCAA coordinator of officials Rogers Redding said.
"Too much rushing around, hurrying and trying to be speedy about getting the ball in play and it sort of put the defense at a disadvantage."
Now, the officials are taking the pace back.
Formalizing ideas they've discussed among themselves over the past few seasons, the officials have added pace-of-play procedures in the football officiating mechanics manual.
It's not specific rules, but more of an outline on how to appease the up-tempo offenses while keeping the defenses relatively happy.
"It's not revolutionary, but it sort of calls attention to the need for the officials not to make the ball ready for play until all the officials are in position," s
aid Redding, a referee in the SEC from 1994-2004. "That may mean cleaning up the sideline before, but having the umpire sort of crisply jog but don't sprint, hustle but don't hurry in getting the ball ready for play."