College basketball rule changes I wish would happen but probably won't

1. 4 12-minute quarters. College basketball isn't too long, and the season isn't so long that players get tired. Nothing wrong with a 48-minute game, and there are no "sacred" stats/records that would be threatened by the longer game.

2. One shot clock per possession. If you get an offensive rebound or get fouled on the floor, good for you--take all the time you need now.

3a. Forego free throws in exchange for a timeout. This comes in handy at the end of the game when you're protecting a lead and the other team is fouling intentionally. Anytime you get fouled and are awarded free throws, you may burn a timeout (as long as you have one) and forego the free throws in exchange for in-bounding the ball.

3b. If you're in the double bonus, you may shoot the first free throw and then forego the second free throw and burn a timeout in exchange for the ball out of bounds.

4. Bring back jump balls. Re-draw that dotted line in the lane and tip it off when two players tie it up. Furthermore, when the ball goes out of bounds and you don't know which player touched it last, have the two players in question tip it off. The whole reason for the possession arrow is to save time, which is why it's infuriating when they go to a 2-minute review in the waning minutes to determine possession when the ball goes out of bounds. "Too close to call" plays are random and can be resolved equitably and efficiently with a jump ball.

5. Expand to 96 tournament teams, with the 32 auto-bids receiving a bye to the round of 64, and 64 at-large teams playing for the other 32 spots. This achieves two goals desired by two parties: it expands the tournament (which the people with the money would like to do), and it still places more emphasis on the regular season and conference tournaments (which the fans would love). For example, Virginia would probably be playing Georgetown tonight for the right to play Gardner-Webb. LSU would be playing like, ETSU tonight.


:csb: