It’s that time people. College football gets underway tonight at 7 pm ET at various venues around the country. As you’re watching these games, you will notice a few things different from last season as far as some rules go.

The first thing that the NCAA changed was where teams kicked the ball off from. In previous years, college kickers were kicking off from their own 35-yard line. Now, they will be kicking from their 30-yard line like they do in the NFL. The reason being the NCAA wanted to create a little excitement rather than watching kickers boom the ball through the end zone. The one thing to watch for is kick returners being injured. The more kickoffs in play, the bigger the likelihood of an injury.

Remember that awful rule of last year where the clock started right away on kickoffs and then again as soon the ball was set after kickoffs or change of possessions. The NCAA threw that rule out the door. The reason being there was an average of 14 less plays a game in 2006 from 2005. Plus, it created a mess at times. If you had the lead at the end of the game, you could easily milk the clock or if teams were trailing, you would see a full dead-on sprint right after the ball was set. Now the clock will start when the receiving team gets the ball on kickoffs and then again when the quarterback snaps the ball.

The times on the playclock were altered a little bit as far as certain situations go. Coming out of a TV timeout, teams will have 15 seconds to snap the ball rather than the usual 25 seconds. The play clock on kickoffs will start as soon as the kicker is handed the ball.

And there is one final rule change. Charged timeouts will now only be 30 secs while TV timeouts will remain the same at 1 minute. Although it does seem like TV timeouts can last like 10 minutes. If you are at a game and you see the guy dressed in red on the field, it’s a television timeout.

I like the changes, especially the starting of the clock. It was ridiculous to see how much time was wasted during a game. As a fan, I want to see as much action as I could get. Also the kickoff rule is an interesting one as you will see how good many special teams are or aren’t. This may also change the recruiting a little as you are going to want the best return guys to help get your team in good field position.

It’s going to be a fun entertaining season of college football this season.