On third-and-5 from his team’s own 10-yard line, Auburn quarterback Kodi Burns rolled to his right and, for once, did not see a Tennessee jersey hovering around one of his receivers. He completed a 10-yard sideline pass to Montez Billings, who made what’s normally considered a critical error by getting shoved out of bounds with his team ahead late in a close game.

In 2008, however, Tennessee’s Nevin McKenzie and Dennis Rogan were not rewarded for getting Billings out of bounds. More than two minutes remained in the game, and under the new NCAA rules, the clock would restart when an official spotted the ball. The Vols promptly called a timeout with 2:02 remaining. It did not matter.

The game was over. Auburn ran the ball once, kneeled twice and won, 14-12.

“On that play, the new rules really made a difference,” Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer said. “It makes a big difference. It shortens the game, and our plays are down considerably.”

Several Southeastern Conference coaches are irritated with the new rules, which include restarting the clock after a player goes out of bounds — except when less than two minutes remain in a half — and a 40-second play clock.

Based on statistics from the first five weeks of the season, fans are seeing about 10 fewer plays per game this season despite the proliferation of the no-huddle offense. During last Saturday’s game at Neyland Stadium, Northern Illinois ran 60 plays and Tennessee had just 50.

After running just 54 plays against Tennessee earlier this season, Florida coach Urban Meyer lashed out at the new rules, calling them “awful.” The rules are similar to the NFL, which also uses the 40-second clock and stops the clock after a player goes out of bounds.

“It’s concerning. I love the game of college football. I don’t just love it, I live it. It’s the greatest game going,” Meyer said. “What bothers me is changing the rules like it’s the NFL. I couldn’t disagree more. The reason the NFL does it is they can’t afford the big rosters, so that’s why they shorten the game. We have 85 scholarship players and they all deserve to play. I’m very much opposed.”

His athletic director, Jeremy Foley, called SEC commissioner Mike Slive and asked that the league evaluate the rules at the next formal SEC meeting in December.

“Florida is not complaining,” Foley said. “Everybody is playing with it. My concern is if you reduce the number of plays, fans pay a lot of money to watch those plays. I’m not sure if what we’re doing to save 10 minutes of football is working.”

Games are actually 13 minutes shorter from last year, on average, from 3 hours, 23 minutes to 3:10. But in the big business of college football, commercial time remains unchanged from two years ago.

ESPN, for instance, is guaranteed eight minutes of commercial time in the fourth quarter of SEC games, plus a minute after each score. CBS gets an extra 25 seconds after its typical 1-minute, 40-second commercial break until play resumes. ESPN gets 20 extra seconds after its breaks, which are two minutes long. Each network is allowed a one-minute break following a score.

Saving 10-13 minutes, several SEC coaches said, is not worth losing 10-15 percent of their offensive plays.

“I’m not a fan of it,” Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said. “There’s not as many great comebacks. It’s a shame, because I love the way college football was played out.”

Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, who seemed like the lone voice in support of the radical clock changes two years ago, once again said he favors the shorter games. This time, he has the support of Kentucky’s Rich Brooks.

Brooks said the permanent addition of the 12th game, plus college football’s overtime rules, necessitate shorter games. In Kentucky’s 52-50, four-overtime loss to Tennessee last year, the Wildcats ran 110 plays.

“The NCAA definitely needs to leave this rule alone for a year before the offensive gurus get so upset and more plays and more time get put back on the clock,” Brooks said. “We put a lot of stress on our players’ bodies. If you add up the extra time on the field with the rules we had last year, it equals one or two more full games of action. We’ve had games with under 70 plays this year, and I don’t see anything wrong with that.”

Just don’t push a player out of bounds late in a game and expect clock stoppages or praise from the coaches. As Tennessee found out against Auburn, the game was already over with two minutes remaining.

“From an offensive standpoint, I’d rather not be limited that much, personally,” Fulmer said. “I’d rather know I’m going to get my possessions in, and right now you can’t say that.”

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