Shot clock proposal altered to 80 seconds

Just over a month after officially recommending a 60-second shot clock for men’s college lacrosse, which included some “cautious pessimism”, that rule has been altered.

The NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Rules Committee has changed their proposal to have an 80-second shot clock that begins on possession, as first reported by Matt Kinnear of Inside Lacrosse. The reset will also now be at 80-seconds.

Teams will still have 20 seconds to clear the ball to midfield, but will be able to have the remaining amount of time to get a shot on cage. At minimum, teams will have 60 seconds to get a shot on net, but could have more time if teams clear the ball faster than 20 seconds.

Sacred Heart Pioneers head coach and member of the Rules Committee Jon Basti told College Crosse it was a great change and something that should have been done in the beginning.

“It was one of the options that was originally discussed,” Basti said, “but we felt like the 80 seconds would be way too long. And when people started practice a couple weeks ago, the big thing ended up being no visible clearing clock.”

Basti emphasized the alterations won’t change how the original proposal was a month ago. Instead, the big difference will be players, coaches, and referees being able to see how long they have to clear the ball. In a few inter-squad scrimmages so far, the Pioneers head coach stated his players had a problem with how much time there was to clear. He also mentioned that faceoff variations are now much simpler because of the new changes.

The rules committee received feedback from coaches and administrators last Friday. That same day, the committee went on a conference call and made the necessary changes.

“Overwhelmingly, the response was ‘we want a visible clearing clock,’” Basti noted. “So that’s why we decided to do this.”

A formal press release should be released sometime later in the week.

In non-rules related news, with Merrimack announcing their move to the Northeast Conference, Basti was enthusiastic over the addition of the Warriors to the conference starting next season.

“I absolutely love it,” Basti said. “I think it’ll make our league even better, it’ll make our league so much more competitive. It’s going to be harder to make the playoffs, but I think it’ll also give us the opportunity to stay out of the play-in game.”

The Warriors will hold a formal press conference Thursday morning at 11:30 AM on their campus. Merrimack will join Sacred Heart, Bryant, Hobart, Mount St. Mary’s, Robert Morris, Saint Joseph’s, and Wagner starting in 2020.