NCAA Says There's 'Positive Momentum' for Switch to Quarters from Halves for Men's CBB

Ten years after women's college basketball switched from two halves to four quarters, the NCAA is taking steps toward making the same change for men's games at some point.

A release from the NCAA men's basketball committee states there is "positive momentum" to switch to a four-quarter format for games in the future.

There is no set timetable for a potential change, with the committee citing "hurdles" to clear before it could go into effect:

"The committee realizes there are hurdles to implementing the quarter format to the game, including the structuring of media timeouts to accommodate commercial inventory. The committee recommended NCAA Division I conferences create a joint working group to provide feedback on the potential change from halves to quarters."

When the NCAA Women’s Basketball Rules Committee originally proposed the switch from halves to quarters, the rationale cited was it would enhance the flow of the game.

Part of this was attributed to the way certain rules changed, including teams reaching the bonus and getting two free-throw attempts on the fifth team foul in each quarter. Fouls reset at the end of each quarter.

Under the halves format, teams reached the one-and-one bonus on the seventh foul in a half and double bonus on the 10th foul in a half.

Media timeouts for televised games are also divided differently. There are a total of eight in the two-halves format, with four in each half and typically occurring every four minutes

In the four-quarter format for the women's game, there is one media timeout in each quarter that occurs during a dead ball at or below the five-minute mark in the period. There is also a media timeout at the end of the first and third periods, plus the first team-called timeout in the second half becomes a media timeout.

The NCAA Men's Basketball Committee stated in its release that it is recommending all Division I conferences "create a joint working group to provide feedback on the potential change from halves to quarters."

Their hope is to have feedback by the next rules-change year.