Hoo hoo! NCAA gets tuff on sidelines

[Texas Aggie]

The theory is that if the clock isn't going to stop in the last two minutes, a team with a slight lead can unfairly use the clock to their advantage. The example in football would be that the offense runs backwards out of bounds, knowing that it takes longer to retrieve and spot the ball from there, artificially gaining an advantage. Another example is in summer league basketball with 20 minute running clock halves. The thinking behind stopping it at the end of the half is that one team might take longer to shoot a free or might violate a rule (defense in the lane early for example) intentionally to gain a time advantage.

[jimpiano]

Originally Posted by Texas Aggie

The theory is that if the clock isn't going to stop in the last two minutes, a team with a slight lead can unfairly use the clock to their advantage. The example in football would be that the offense runs backwards out of bounds, knowing that it takes longer to retrieve and spot the ball from there, artificially gaining an advantage. Another example is in summer league basketball with 20 minute running clock halves. The thinking behind stopping it at the end of the half is that one team might take longer to shoot a free or might violate a rule (defense in the lane early for example) intentionally to gain a time advantage.

There is nothing unfair about legally using the clock to your advantage. The kneel down is used for that reason. And no team with the lead is likely to intentionally run out of bounds under the new rules and trade 40 seconds for 25 seconds.