NCAA Basketball: How the latest rule changes will impact 2019-20 season

The NCAA is rolling out some new and improved rules for the 2019-2020 season. How will these changes impact NCAA Basketball going forward?

Just about every season the NCAA implements rule changes that have been approved by the NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee and the Playing Rules Oversight Panel. Many times these rules are first experimented with in previous seasons National Invitation Tournament (NIT).

In the 2015 NIT the NCAA implemented two experimental rules that were then added as official changes to the 2015-2016 season. The first being a shortened shot clock from 35 seconds to 30 seconds, in hopes of making games flow better and a more entertaining pace for fans. The second rule change was extending the restricted arc which was 3 feet from the center of the basket to 4 feet, the rational behind this change was more about player safety, “by reducing the potential for collisions under the basket.”

In the 2017 NIT there were a plethora of rules experimented with, however, the only rule that made the final cut was resetting the shot clock to 20 seconds (unless the shot clock has more than 20 seconds left) when the ball inbounded following a foul by the defense in the frontcourt that did not result in free throws.

In both the 2018 and 2019 NIT, the NCAA experimented with four very similar rules. In both NIT’s the 3 point line was pushed back to the international line, the free throw lane was widened from 12 feet to 16 feet, the shot clock reset to 20 seconds off of offensive rebounds and team fouls reset at the 10-minute mark of each half. Two of the four rules that were experimented within the previous two NIT postseason events will be implemented into college basketball this coming season. Not every new rule that the NCAA implements are first experimented with in the NIT, and many have no major impact on the games being played whatsoever.