Last Friday, it was announced that a shot clock is coming to college lacrosse. The NCAA Rules Committee decided to have a 60-second shot clock that begins only after the ball is advanced across the midline — or one of several different things takes place after a face-off win.

I have spent the last couple of years telling anyone who would listen: The shot clock absolutely needs to start on possession.

Ultimately, I think it is likely that most everyone will realize implementing the shot clock the way the committee has decided is a mistake, and the rules committee will change the rule to have the shot clock begin on possession two years from now.

However, it is still worth laying out the comprehensive case for why it is so much better for the shot clock to begin on possession.

Everyone Else Does It That Way

In every other league, in any sport, where there is a shot clock, it begins on possession. In the NBA, MLL, the NLL, college basketball, women’s college lacrosse, youth and junior box lacrosse, international basketball and high school basketball in states where they have a shot clock, it begins on possession.

Of course, the fact that everyone else does something or that something has always been done a certain way isn’t a good reason to do it. However, it does suggest that we might be wise to learn from their experience.

The much stronger argument as to why it’s worth implementing the shot clock in the same way everyone else does, is that it means most people will already be familiar with it. Athletic departments will be able to train shot clock operators for men’s and women’s lacrosse together or have the same person do it for both teams.

Watching games on TV, we are all going to hear Anish Shroff, Quint Kessenich, Paul Carcaterra, Mark Dixon and anyone else who calls games explain the new shot clock rules dozens of times during this upcoming spring season. If the shot clock began on possession, it would be safe to assume that even fans completely unfamiliar with lacrosse had watched an NBA or college basketball game and thus were familiar with the basic concept.

Even if they had to explain the entirety of the shot clock rules, it would be as simple as explaining that it began when the team gained possession. Now instead, they’re going to have to repeatedly go into detail about all the different ways it can start and when it stops because it works differently than anything fans have ever seen used in a game.

Shot Clock Operation Is Far More Complicated

The new separate clocks rule will be more complicated for shot clock operators than one that begins on possession in a multitude of ways.

If the shot clock began on possession, the task of the shot clock operator is fairly straightforward.

Once a team gains possession after a face-off, start the clock (easy to determine when this happens because all the players run out of the restraining boxes)

If there is a shot that hits the goalie or the post, reset the clock

When there is a change in possession, reset the clock

When the game clock is less than the shot clock, turn the clock off

Not necessarily the easiest task in the world, but it’s exactly how it works in basketball and women’s lacrosse, so nearly every school already has an experienced shot clock operator they could use or at least could train them for multiple sports simultaneously.

However, instead the rules committee decided that they would make things far more complicated.

On a face-off, there are now four different ways that the shot clock can start:

A pass in the offensive half of the field

The ball is carried across the restraining line

The 20-second clearing clockexpires with the ball still being possessed between the midline and the restraining line

The ball is moved into the defensive half and then cleared back across midfield

Resetting the clock after an offensive rebound or after a shot hits the post works the same way, as does turning it off at the end of the game.

However, the separate shot clock and clearing count also introduces a complication on turnovers and changes of possession. What the shot clock operator has to do depends on which half of the field the turnover happens on.

If the turnover is by a team on the offensive half of the field, the shot clock has to be turned off because it doesn’t run during a clear. However, if there is a turnover by a team on the defensive half of the field during a clear, the shot clock will start immediately because possession will now be with the team on their offensive half of the field. Having to turn the shot clock off during clears is also an additional task that wouldn’t be necessary until the end of quarters if it began on possession.

Full Length Resets Are Not A Big Deal

I have heard that the driving factor in the decision not to start the shot clock on possession was that a reset to the full 80 seconds was just too long. If that is the case, it is an extraordinarily weak justification.

A straight 80-second shot clock beginning on possession with 20 seconds to advance the ball over the midline that runs simultaneously is actually a smaller ratio of advancement time to total shot clock time than every other league that uses a shot clock.

NBA uses a 24-second shot clock with eight seconds to advance the ball across half court. MLL has a 60-second shot clock and allows 20 seconds to clear the ball over midfield. Both the NLL and college basketball have 30 second shot clocks with eight seconds to get the ball over the midline. Those are ratios of 3 to 1 for the NBA and MLL, and 3.75 to 1 for the NLL and college basketball. Using a 4-to-1 ratio for college lacrosse would mean the impact of additional time on a reset after an offensive rebound would be smaller in percentage terms than any of the other leagues.

If none of the other leagues seem to have any issues with allowing offenses more time to possess the ball when they get an offensive rebound and the shot clock resets despite the relatively bigger impacts, it’s very difficult to understand why it would be a significant issue for college lacrosse.

Even if it was the case that the full 80 seconds would be too long, there is no reason that the shot clock could not just reset to 60 seconds instead. While it’s true that makes the job of the shot clock operator more complicated and more prone to errors, since they would already be resetting the clock regardless, it seems to result in significantly less complication than the four different ways it can start after a face-off and having to constantly shut it off and start it again rather than just reset it.

Additionally, resets happen less often, three to four times per game per team on average, than face-offs, which occur usually more than 20 times per game.

Strange Incentives

The loss of whatever remains of the 20 seconds of clearing time when the ball crosses midfield or the shot clock starts after a face-off win also introduces some strange and completely unnecessary incentives into the game.

Imagine a scenario in which a team turns the ball over with around 90 seconds left in the quarter. If they let the other team take close to the full 80 seconds of potential possession time, they’re going to get the ball back with 10 or maybe 15 seconds left in the quarter. Not quite enough time to do much of anything.

In that situation, a team could have its attack pressure the goalie or back line of close defenders to intentionally force a pass over their heads, then turn and chase the player with the ball over the midfield line forcing the 60-second shot clock to start in 5 seconds or so. Now they guarantee themselves 25 or 30 seconds left. That’s enough time to get the ball down the field and have a legitimate chance to score. Very likely enough time that the other team won’t even bother to hold until the end of the shot clock and will shoot even sooner giving themselves more time.

The trade-off would be sacrificing an opportunity to cause a turnover on the ride, which is unlikely anyways, in order to guarantee another meaningful possession before the end of the quarter.

The number of possible gimmicks and shenanigans that could happen on face-offs is even higher. The most obvious one is going to be that teams will try to have the player that picks up the ball hang onto it in between the midfield line and the restraining line while his teammates sub out for offensive midfielders and the defense tries to force him to throw a pass or carry across the restraining line.

Defenses could use the opportunity presented by LSMs and face-off specialists going to sub to double the ball while the close defenders intentionally leave attackmen wide open to try to bait them into passing. Or perhaps one defensive midfielder could drop back in while the other runs behind the player with the ball to chase them across the restraining line.

The team that wins the face-off might counter by only subbing one player at a time, but a pass on the offensive half of the field starts the shot clock, so the defense will be trying to force a pass to that teammate too.

Manipulating the start time of the shot clock opens up even more possibilities for teams that opt to put a short stick midfielder on the wing who can stay and play offense. That player could start to initiate the offense from outside the restraining line before the start of the 60-second shot clock, which would result in a possession that is functionally longer than 60 seconds.

I don’t suspect we will see any teams passing up a sure clear just to stall for more time to sub without eating into the shot clock, but it’s likely that we will see players slow up or veer off to the side to delay crossing the midfield line by a second or two if there is no clear transition opportunity and no additional risk of losing possession of the ball.

On a face-off, a player could kick a loose ball over the midfield line before they pick it up so possession would be gained on the offensive half of the field rather than the defensive half and thus they would be able to hold the ball on the offensive side outside the restraining line without starting the shot clock.

There may also be additional ways to manipulate the shot clock that I’m not thinking about. We know that teams will do these sorts of things because they did them last fall in scrimmages played under somewhat similar rules.

When the shot clock begins on possession, there is no reason not to advance the ball down to the goal as quickly as possible and for the team without the ball to try to stop their opponent from doing so.

More Reliance On Referees

Previously trivial distinctions surrounding face-offs now take on increased importance. Under the old rules and with a shot clock that begins on possession, the referees had to make a ruling on when a team gains possession. That is still the case, but now they also have to decide the spot where possession is gained to know which side of the midfield line if falls on and what constitutes a pass.

This results in more ways for referees to make a mistake, more things for coaches to complain about and more situations where it will feel like the outcome wasn’t determined by the players on the field.

If a player flips the ball off the ground up to a teammate with the scoop of their stick, is that considered possession and a pass? If a player never really had possession and the ball flies out of their stick as they’re trying to pick it up, but ref had signaled possession already, could that be considered a pass if the ball flies towards a teammate even though the player didn’t intend to pass it? Could we see a lacrosse version of the infamous Tom Brady “tuck rule” call in which a player is winding up to pass only to have the ball checked away creating controversy over whether his stick was in a forward passing motion rather than cradling or throwing a pass fake? Or does the fact that the distinction between forwards and backwards passes only matter in football mean that the distinction between a windup and a forward passing motion is meaningless? If the player who gains possession has it checked away, but picks up a second groundball, does it count as a different possession from the one that won the face-off and thus would start the 60-second shot clock? What if the ball is checked away from them, but up into the air and they manage to catch it again before it hits the ground?

If there is a loose ball push call in a scrum close to the midfield line, the refs now have to make a definitive ruling about which side of the line the push occurred on because it determines when the shot clock will start. What about players who scoop up a ball that’s on the other side of the midfield line or with one foot on each side? What if a player lifts the ball up off the ground on one side of the midfield line while moving towards the midfield line, but bobbles it and doesn’t really have possession until they are across the midfield line to the other side?

Of course, referees are already asked to make determinations about where players have possession on the field and whether something was a pass or a shot, so these aren’t unusual calls for them to have to make. It’s just that now referees will be making more of them because of the way they impact the shot clock in a way that’s completely avoidable if the shot clock just began on possession.