NCAA football is known as the sport that doggedly utilizes a playoff system that drives its fans nuts. Last week the NCAA employed this odd rulemaking philosophy in its basketball governance, deciding to move the 3-point arc back a foot for the 2008-2009 season.
It was yet another strange choice from an institution that tends to nitpick its rule book without recognizing its obsessed fan base.
Last season the NCAA changed the way its football games were timed, by speeding up the clock but sacrificing the games’ trademark dramatic finishes. The move was shortsighted at best, and it caused predictable rage from some top coaches. After just one year the new rule was erased from the books; the NCAA admitted its mistake.
Lengthening the 3-point arc from 19 feet 9 inches to 20-9 may not be as significant a change as the football timing, but it demonstrates a similar tendency from the NCAA brass.
The change is supposed to clear some space around the basket, creating a less physical game. It shows that the NCAA is leaning toward a pace like that of the flashy NBA. Perhaps these administrators just don’t understand that college basketball fans love college basketball because it’s not the NBA. Talk to any die-hard college hoops fan and they will surely tell you they would rather see a fundamentally sound 65-62 battle than a 120-118 NBA shootout.
The 3-point line change really reminds me of the football clock decision. Instead of going all the way to the 23-9 NBA arc, the NCAA chose an awkward middle ground. On the football side they chose to speed up the clock at crucial change of possession intervals, not after a first down, as the NFL does. The NCAA can recognize that adopting the pro rules would be a huge blunder, yet it still makes the smallest amendments just for the sake of making a change.
Luckily for college hoops fans, 1 foot won’t make much of a difference ““ it’s just a bizarre choice. Some preseason tournaments have experimented with the 20-9 line in the past without a major statistical disparity. But because the women’s arc won’t be moved back, fans will have to get used to a confusing double arc on the floor at most games.
It does beg the question, however: Will coaches continue to encourage most players to take so many threes? For example, would a player like Luc Richard Mbah a Moute focus on improving his 3-point shot even after the line is moved back?
I think the answer is yes, simply because the line is still closer than the NBA’s. And anyway, the NCAA won’t be implementing the change until the 2008 season, when Luc could be in the NBA.
While the NCAA may have made a weird choice in moving back the arc, it made a serious mistake in not adopting the restricted area used in the NBA. In the NBA if a defender stands in the restricted area he cannot draw a charge.
This half circle under the hoop (4 feet in radius) allows for easier officiating on the block-charge call, the toughest call for refs. More than that, it would limit one of the college game’s most dangerous plays when a defender tries to swoop under the hoop to draw a charge as the offender flies toward the basket.
Of course the NCAA needs to continue to consider rule changes and address potential issues. But it must remain cognizant of preserving the game and selecting only those elements of the pro model that will enhance its game without significant alterations.
In the past two years, the institution has shown an odd tendency of blending its desire to remain different with changes that make it more like the pro game.
Instead it should stay firm in its stance and keep the college games as they are and as the fans demand.
E-mail Allen at sallen@media.ucla.edu if you think NCAA President Myles Brand should be impeached.