Shot clock proposal pushed to 2023-24 season
The CIAC boys and girls basketball committees voted to honor the request made by the Connecticut Association of Athletic Directors Executive Board to push back its shot clock proposal. It will now be implemented for the start of the 2023-24 at all levels once vetted by the CIAC membership.
In an email from the CIAC to state athletic directors Wednesday morning obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media, it was determined by CAAD more time was needed to have everything in place. The original proposal passed by the boys and girls basketball committees in September called for implementation in the 2022-23 season.
“We are all on the same page,” said Gregg Simon, the associate executive director of the CIAC. “Based on this information, both the boys and girls basketball committees both quickly agreed to change the proposal and push it back one year. It was not a long debate. Their (CAAD Executive Board) reasoning was very sound and we all agreed. What our member schools want is what we do.”
Simon said not only have prices gone up to purchase and install shot clocks — to approximately $3,000 — but they are in short supply in the near future.
“In doing some research on it, through the supply chain problems, the industry of scoreboards, including shot clocks, is about six months behind,” Simon said.
The process still has to be completely vetted by the CIAC membership to have “the use of a 35 second shot clock in girls and boys basketball at all playing levels for the 2023-2024 season,” the email states. That would include sub-varsity games.
“That (having the shot clock at all levels) was nonnegotiable. Both the boys and girls basketball committees want to use it for all three levels,” Simon said.
The National Federation of State High School Associations approved the use of a 35-second shot clock back in the spring. The state boys and girls basketball coaches, in the last survey conducted by the CIAC, were overwhelmingly in favor of having a shot clock.
Simon previously told Hearst Connecticut Media that he conducted a survey of the state membership this spring and 58 percent of the athletic directors are in favor of the shot clock.
Once the process is completely vetted by the membership, it still would have to be approved by the CIAC Board of Control.
The email to the state ADs also indicated that the divisions for both boys and girls basketball will be released on Wednesday.