Why Does Women's Basketball Have Quarters - T-Tees - Your Answers Await, Life's Questions Unraveled

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Collegiate men’s basketball is the only remaining division of the sport that plays in halves, rather than quarters.

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It didn’t used to be that way, though. NCAA women’s basketball also used to feature two 20-minute halves before making the switch several years ago.

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It was during the 2015-16 season when the ruling changed through a proposal to the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel. The proposal was also endorsed by the WBCA’s Board of Directors.

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Here’s everything you need to know about how a women’s college basketball game is timed in 2023:

How long is a women’s college basketball quarter?

Women’s college basketball has transitioned to copycat the WNBA and FIBA.

The games are compromised of four, 10-minute quarters, with a 15-minute halftime in the middle.

The format was originally recommended because it was believed that a four-quarter format would enhance the flow of the game.

Why isn’t men’s college basketball played in quarters?

There are two main consequences that come with moving the men’s play clock to mimic the women’s, according to Sports Illustrated.

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The first, is how team fouls would be processed.

In a four-quarter game, the team fouls reset to zero at the end of each quarter and if a team reaches the bonus in the fourth quarter, it remains in the bonus during any additional overtime period. It also allows teams to reach the bonus and shoot two free throws on the fifth team foul in each quarter.

Right now, on the men’s side, a team reaches a one-and-one bonus on the seventh team foul of each half, and the two-shot bonus on the 10th team foul.

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The second is a reduction in the number of of media timeouts. If a game is televised, there are eight media timeouts, four in each half. On the women’s side, there is one media timeout in each quarter, occurring either at the first dead ball at or below the five-minute mark of each period and at the end of the first and third periods.

A third, and unconfirmed theory, is that two halves make the game more competitive than four quarters. GMTM wrote that halves means there’s less stoppage time, leading to more scoring opportunities, a steady pace and flow and closer game ending scores between a wider range of teams.

Did converting women’s games to quarters actually help?

Looking at the statistics records from the 2014-2017 seasons, it appears there was not much of a change when it came down to the average number of fouls and free throws per game, nor in the length of the game itself.

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In fact, in 2016-17, the second season after the change, the free throw percentage was at an all-time high of 69.48%.

Year Free throw attempts Fouls per game 2014-15 18.19 17.57 2015-16* 18.13 17.52 2016-17 17.28 17.52

*The year the clock system changed.

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Category: WHY