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Pac-12 shortening halftime, commercial breaks for non-conference games

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The Pac-12 will attempt to reach shorter game times in 2017, as the league will cut halftime from 20 minutes to 15 and have fewer commercial breaks during non-conference matchups.

Commissioner Larry Scott announced the plans during his appearance at Pac-12 Media Days on Wednesday, claiming he got nothing but positive feedback from coaches.

"I was delighted to hear our coaches feel like 20 minutes is more than they need from a student-athlete health and rest and X's and O's perspective," Scott said during his media availability, via ASAP Sports. "That led me to want to push our conference to pilot with this shortened format. It's a step. We'll test it during the non-conference season."

Scott added that networks had lost up to 30 percent of their audience during halftime, another factor that almost certainly led to the idea of shortening the break.

The average game in the Pac-12 was almost 3.5 hours in length last season, a number Scott hopes to drop by 30 minutes with the new changes.

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