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NCAA Reportedly Headed Towards a 30-Second Shot Clock

There’s always that one guy on the golf course that is in rush, screaming at the top of his lungs, “Rate of play! Rate of play! Rate of play!” if you take a second look at the fairway. Turns out, if someone is yelling at you the next time you’re on the golf course, they are employed by the NCAA rules committee (most likely).

According to Rick Byrd, the NCAA rules committee chairman, Men’s basketball will likely be instituting a 30-second shot clock in the upcoming season. In years past, the shot clock was set to 35 seconds, but the NCAA rules committee is hoping that a five-second reduction will help speed the game up.

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It is a fine concept for sure. It seems in recent years, teams have been totally satisfied swinging the ball for 30 seconds and in order to get a mediocre shot with 3 seconds left in the shot clock. This kind of slow-down, grind it out offense has turned many people away from enjoying the game.

“I think it’s fair to say the buzz about the game is that scoring in the 50s can be ugly,” Byrd stated. “There’s a lot of talk about it — more coverage than ever before. All of that has created acceptance from the coaches’ side.”

A shorter shot clock will create more possessions causing teams to get into their sets more quickly and taking less time to settle on shots that may take an extra five seconds to set up. In late game situations, teams with the lead have less time to stall and can make for more wild finishes than we have seen in the past.

While this is a step in the right direction, reducing the shot clock by five seconds is a just a small part of the multifaceted issue of low scoring college basketball games.

The amount of timeouts in a game, including the required TV timeouts halts the flow of the game significantly. Obviously, TV timeouts are important because they pay the bills, but a reduction in the amount of timeouts a coach can use will create a more fluid game instead of a herky-jerky type flow, especially at the end of games where coaches love to use their time outs.

The NCAA is also discussing widening the paint and the three-point line distance in order to spread the floor out and create more room to operate. Byrd also mentioned a likely situation where the block/charge line will be expanded to four feet to match the NBA line to discourage charge attempts close to the basket, creating more opportunities to score.

It may not result in consistent 70-point games, but at least we are seeing an effort from the head honchos at the NCAA to shape the game to make it more consumable. A 30-second shot clock is a good start, but more rules need to be scrutinized if a more offensively centered game is to be achieved.

Next: NCAA Seeking New Transfer Rules

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