I hate June. No, really. Most of the major college sports are finished. Most UT athletes aren't even on campus. And most water cooler talk revolves around off-the-field issues.

Thus all the recent focus on college football rule changes, big and small. What else is there to talk about in June?

So here's my take on a couple of those rule changes, plus a rumor that could be a great thing for college football traditionalists ... if the NCAA will just get out of the way.

Speeding Up the Game

This appears to be the NCAA's biggest emphasis of the off-season. In an effort to cut college football games down from an average of three hours and fourteen minutes, the NCAA has decided that the clock will start on kickoffs when the kicker kicks the ball, not when the returner catches the ball, as was in years past.

Also, the clock will start more quickly after all changes of possession. And halftime will be shortened as well.

Those changes should all help to eat up actual gametime, meaning less plays per game. That means fewer minutes in the bleachers or in front of TV screens for football fans.

But here's a question: Who wants the games shortened?

Football fans spend 353 days of the year wishing it were one of those 12 glorious Saturdays when their school actually plays a football game. When you break it down, there are just 36 to 40 hours per year of regular-season football action per school.

Shorten the games? Heck, I say lengthen the games. Halftime, too. Anyone who's ever stood in a Neyland Stadium restroom line can tell you that shortening halftime only means more missed action for a whole lot of fans. And there's nothing worse than hearing the unmistakable "big play" crowd roar while you're stuck staring at 80-year-old plumbing.

Coaches' Challenges

The other biggie is the newly added "coach's challenge" which allows a coach to call a timeout and force a replay review of a controversial call. Each coach will get one challenge per game.

That's in addition to the replay official who'll still be in the pressbox, still watch every play, and still be able to review and reverse calls at any moment.

How that fits into the NCAA's "let's shorten the game" directive is anyone's guess. It's not a bad thing, mind you, to give coaches the chance to double-check a key call. But it sure won't help to shorten any games.

Dark Jerseys For Everyone?

The big rumor coming from the Left Coast might just signal a smart move on the part of the NCAA.

As the story goes, Southern Cal coach Pete Carroll recently approached UCLA coach Karl Dorrell to suggest that the two schools revive their tradition of wearing their dark jerseys when they meet this fall. It would be red vs. blue, rather than going with the NCAA-mandated "somebody's gotta wear white" rule.

Since the advent of the television, the NCAA has forced teams to wear white on the road (unless the home team chooses to wear white, as LSU does). Trouble is ... that was a rule made for black and white TVs, not today's color sets.

But that hasn't stopped the NCAA from walking the college football catwalk and dictating fashion to schools like Tennessee (the Vols weren't allowed to wear their 2004 throwback uniforms on the road because there was too much orange on the shoulders of the jerseys, or so the NCAA said).

Well, rumor has it that if USC and UCLA agree to scrap white unis for their annual grudge match, the NCAA WILL allow them to do it. And that sets a precedent.

What's to stop Tennessee and Alabama from matching up in crimson and orange, just as they did right up until the 1960s? Tennessee in orange vs. Kentucky in blue? Michigan in blue vs. Ohio State in scarlet? Notre Dame in blue (or green) vs. USC in red?

Nothing. And that's the way it should be. The NCAA needs to leave fashion to Prada.

A move away from the white-jersey rule would be an especially good thing for Vol fans with a hang-up on tradition. Have you noticed how the orange has gradually been disappearing from UT's football uniforms?

First UT's orange pants were deep-sixed (aside from an all-orange mess vs. Memphis in a 1999 nailbiter). Then the twin orange stripes were removed from the Vols' white pants. Then the huge orange numbers of the Peyton Manning era were removed from the white jerseys and replaced with much smaller numerals.

Finally, the thick orange stripe of Tennessee's helmet was done away with and replaced with a thin stripe that makes the current helmets look a bit like the kiddie, pseudo-helmets in the back of a Sears catalog.

If any more orange disappears, the Vols will wind up looking like the prison guards form the original version of "The Longest Yard."

So here's hoping the USC/UCLA game goes off with flying (dark) colors. It's time to leave the black and white world behind, NCAA. And I think most Vol fans could deal with shortened games and NFL-style rules if their home team could just go back to being the Big Orange.