3-2-5-e = dust in the wind. The hated, football-stealing clock rule wasn't merely revised, reviewed or otherwise altered in some shuffling, ineffectual, cosmetic way to deflect criticism without any real change. It had a house dropped on it. The witch is dead, and thanks to in no small part toThe Wiz.

Awash in the glow of this historic restoration of good and right, a brief requiem: amongst many, many other detracors of every outlook and perversion, SMQ his own self specifically took the rule to task here, here and here. It was a dark, dark year nine month's in the nation's history, a time that will remain seared in its consciousness for generations, always striving to pass on its lessons to the next: never forget.

And now, victory! There's some other stuff, re: moving the ball back five yards on kickoffs and actual reductions in the play clock following TV timeouts and even in duration of timeouts, thus probably shortening commercial breaks. But in short, fans of actual football unequivocally win one for a change.

Update [2007-2-15 8:33:39 by SMQ]: From the NCAA's own estimates this morning, the final tally on the proposed changes and how they will make up the time "lost" by scrapping 3-2-5-e:

The third column, obviously, is the key. Slam dunk all around, by SMQ's estimation, especially in terms of reducing timeouts and applying the play clock to kickoffs. Well done, committee.