Several rule changes could be coming to college basketball

The change to a 30-second shot clock seems imminent

The college basketball game could be a lot different when it returns in November. The NCAA Men's Basketball Rules Committee met today and several new proposals were made to change the current rules.

First off, the Rules Committee proposed several modifications to timeouts:

#MBBRules Committee proposes changes related to timeouts. http://pic.twitter.com/qrGYSL8tk7

— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) May 15, 2015

Timeouts will only be limited so much though, as the NCAA wants to allow for as much time for commercials ($$$$) as possible.

Next, they want to reduce the physicality of the game:

#MBBRules Committee proposes rules with goal of reducing physicality in the sport. http://pic.twitter.com/XW0iwZNeCN

— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) May 15, 2015

On NCAA.com, they mentioned that these will be the key areas they will focus on:

• Perimeter defense, particularly on the dribbler and strictly enforcing the directives put in the book before the 2013-14 season.
• Physicality in post play.
• Screening, particularly moving screens and requiring that the screener be stationary.
• Block/charge plays.
• Allowing greater freedom of movement for players without the ball.

Admittedly, this proposed change scares me. Obviously the goal here is to create a "cleaner" game, but I'm afraid it'll just lead to more foul calls. We already saw how whistle-happy Pac-12 refs were last season (remember the first half of the Stanford game?), and even more emphasis on limiting contact could make the games borderline unwatchable.

And finally the most notable proposal -  the Rules Committee wants to reduce the shot clock from 35 seconds to 30 seconds to increase the pace of play. Who doesn't want more points and more possessions? 30-second shot clocks have been discussed for a while now, and they were experimented with last season in the NIT and CBI. I think it's safe to say that this change will likely be approved.

Other rule change proposals:

• Eliminating the "5-seconds when closely guarded" rule
• Eliminating coach-called live ball timeouts
• 10 second backcourt timer will no longer reset with a timeout
• Hanging-on-the-rim technical fouls to become a one shot technical instead of a two shot technical
• Eliminating that dumb rule where players are not allowed to dunk during warmups.

They will also be experimenting with six fouls per player in postseason tournaments this year. Nothing irks me more than when the best players are glued to the bench because they picked up a cheap foul or two. On the flip side though, more fouls allowed per player plus an emphasis on limiting contact could just result in more whistles per game.

And a flagrant foul for flopping? Apparently the NCAA is looking into that too:

The committee discussed the growing issue of players attempting to draw fouls by deceiving officials. The committee proposed a rule that would allow officials to penalize faking fouls during the use of video to review a possible flagrant foul.

These proposals will be voted on by the Playing Rules Oversight Panel on June 8th.

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