They did narrow the college hashmarks, about 20 years ago (pulling a date out of my hat, but that’s probably in the right decade.)
Cincy is beating Illinois 28 to 14 ,first half.
Now its 49-30 with 4 minutes left in the fourth quarter…and Auburn has jumped out to an early 14-0 lead over Alabama!
Man, I would love for an upset or two to happen so Cincinnati could get into the Natl Champ game. They are screwed otherwise.
This Iron Bowl is off to an awesome start (for those without a dog in the fight). Onside kick followed by back-to-back option passes…this is fun!
The college hash marks are 40’ apart. The NFL hashmarks are 18’6" apart, precisely the same width as the goal posts.
The width of the college hash-marks don’t appear to be more than twice as wide as the nfl hashmarks.
I do find it interesting that those diagrams are say the pylons at the corner of the endzone are supposed to be 18 ft tall. (lower left hand corner of the near endzone)
Anyone know why the Big 10 shuts down their schedule two weeks before everyone else does. Illinois, a notable exception with a game today and next weekend.
Does it have anything to do with weather considerations? the Big 10 schools have to worry about frigid temperatures more than most other schools.
My hunch (given that I don’t know for sure) is that the Big 10 doesn’t have a conference championship game at the end of their season to determine who wins the conference like several of the other conferences do, which allows the conference to wrap up sooner.
I honestly doubt weather plays too much of a role given some of the nasty weather games I’ve seen where the players played just fine (albeit uncomfortably), but I’m likely to be proven wrong in that regard.
I think the Big 10 plays an old school schedule: start on Labor Day, end just before Thanksgiving. With the 12 game schedule, everybody wants to insert a bye which extends the season past Thanksgiving even without conference championship games.
For the first 30 years or so of my fandom, the Cal-Stanford game and Ohio State - Michigan were always on the same day, the Saturday before Thanksgiving…which was rivalry game day all around the country. Now it’s all scattered, but the Big 10 didn’t change.
Dammit, 'Bama, you were supposed to lose to the Tigers to help Cincinnati. Curses.
I think only conferences with at least 12 teams are able to have a conference championship game.
Correct. I think they do start playing earlier, like jsc1953 said, but I’m not sure. So they have no championship game, have fewer teams in than some other conferences, and may start earlier.
Not today 
Watching football on the smurf field at Boise St is bad enough in good weather, but when it starts raining, the glare of the lights reflecting off the blue-field is horribly distracting.
Incredibly average teams like Notre Dame, Colorado St and Missouri beat Nevada early this year. How good can the WAC be if Nevada is undefeated in conference going into this game?
I found two other sites that showed the same hashmark width figures. One of them was a graphic used presumably to properly line a college football field.
I presume the pylons are 18" tall. 18’ would be interesting for trying to get the ball inside of as you fly by. 
Prompted by Colorado’s last play TD against Nebraska…does anybody know the rule about PAT at the end of the game, when it has no effect on the score, and nobody cares except gamblers? Does the rule require that they not have a PAT? Or is it a coach’s option?
IME, teams do run a irrelevant PATs when there is 0:00 time showing in regulation in the 4th qtr.
If it is OT, and the PAT is irrelevant, then the game is over when the TD is scored.
However, Colorado apparently scored a TD at 0:00 in the 4th qtr and did not run a PAT, so that contradicts my experience. Maybe I am thinking about NFL, but I thought it was both.
What was the point spread of the game? If the Nebraska was favored by 8, 7.5 or 7 pts, there might be some pissed off gamblers. A spread in that neighborhood would have been my guess.
I was thinking that the rules should take it out of the hands of the coaches or officials – just to avoid the appearance that a point is being tacked on just for the benefit of those who bet on the underdog, or the Over.
My only experience in person with such a game was The Play (Cal-Stanford, 1982). As radio play-by-play guy Joe Starkey famously screamed, “there will be no extra point”.
Phew, that was a close one. Well played, Auburn. Very well played.
Roll Tide. Moo Aubarn.
Auburn is a medium-grade team that works all year to rise above their level to beat Alabama. There is nothing else that matters other than beating Alabama. That’s why Alabama should be more afraid of them than they are – and why year after year, Auburn seems to have Alabama’s number. And they almost called it last night. Too bad they didn’t.