After shortening the shot clock from 45 seconds to 35 before the 1993-94 season, the NCAA announced a proposal for the next reduction on Friday afternoon.

The NCAA rules committee announced its vote on the change on Friday afternoon. All rules change proposals must be approved by Playing Rules Oversight Panel on June 8 before becoming official.

In April, Rick Byrd, the chair of the NCAA rules of committee and Belmont’s head coach, told ESPN that the shot clock would “likely” move from 35 to 30 seconds. The NCAA has already experimented with using a 30-second shot clock in this year’s postseason National Invitation Tournament. Byrd added that the change would combat complaints about pace of play and low scoring that littered the game in the 2014-15 season, and that the collective opinion of coaches has started to call for the change.

That is partially true for Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim, who was highly critical of the 35-second shot clock at Atlantic Coast Conference media day in October.

Boeheim said that there’s no reason the shot clock — invented as a 24-second shot clock in Syracuse in 1954 — should be any longer than that. He went on to say that no “good offense” should need more than 24 seconds to score in college basketball, and his quick-shooting system mostly follows that logic.

The Orange’s 2-3 zone also lulls teams into long possessions, and the 30-second clock can only benefit SU on the defensive end.

On the same day that Boeheim cut up the 35-second shot clock, ACC commissioner John Swofford spoke of the conference’s initiative to have the shot clock reduced.

“As we announced during our spring meetings last year, we will experiment with using a 30-second shot clock during exhibition games this fall,” Swofford said at media day in October. “The goal of the recommendation, which came from our coaches and was ratified by our athletic directors, was to see if this had the potential to increase the number of possessions and ultimately speed up the game.

“And we look forward to sharing whatever experiences we have with that with the men’s basketball rules committee at the end of the season.”

At 2 p.m. on Friday, Byrd will speak to the media via conference call to discuss the factors behind the latest shot-clock change. NCAA national coordinator of men’s basketball officiating J.D. Collins and NCAA vice president of men’s basketball Dan Gavitt will also be on the line.

Published on May 15, 2015 at 1:59 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse