New Rules From The NCAA

The NCAA announced new rules Wednesday: academic fraud and strong-ass offers will mean immediate termination.

Just kidding! Those guys are still employed. Congrats, cheaters!

The most important new rule pertains to the three point shot: the line will move from 20 feet, 9 inches back to 22 feet, 1¾ inches, which will standardize it with the international game.

D-1 will start this coming season; D-II and D-III will follow later.

The basic idea is to open the court up for a more dynamic game. Of course they could do that by installing a 20 second clock too but whatever.

The three point shot, as far as we know, started in the ABA and moved over to the NBA and finally college and high school.

It’s been an interesting addition but aside from the idea of opening the court, it also created a game where we mostly now see either bombs or dunk attempts. The mid-range game is what needs help now. The ability to move in traffic and get a shot off is not what it used to be and that’s not really helping the game a lot.

Maybe basketball could figure out a way to reward passing instead. Then it could become the beautiful game it was intended to be.

There are three other changes at the bottom of the article including one to allow review of goaltending or basket interference in the last two minutes of regulation and also overtime.

Update: Barry tells us that Abe Saperstein first put the three point shot in for the American Basketball League in 1961. The Eastern League picked it up in 1963-64.

The ABA was a bit late to the party, only starting the three point shot when it started in 1967-68, partly as a way to distinguish itself from the NBA.