Before starting the meeting, the Board of Directors’ President stated that “they will be making some tough decisions today,” according to HighSchoolOT. Ironically, that must not include the shot-clock topic. It doesn’t seem like there was much “difficulty” in determining a unanimous 0-17 ruling against the addition of shot clocks in high school basketball. Before going any further with pointed opinions, here is a list of states that currently have a shot clock (per USA Today):
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina (optional), South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Washington D.C., Wyoming (optional).
Consider this fact: North Carolina has produced nearly four times more NBA players than North Dakota has produced college players. What could possibly be the reasoning for other states to be so far ahead of a place we refer to as the “Hoopstate?” Perhaps this should come as no real surprise, as the NCHSAA Board continues to make decisions anchored by money. The whole claim that shot clocks are this incredibly expensive investment is ridiculous. We seriously are acting like the apparent $6,000 for shot-clock installation is going to hurt the school system’s pockets? But yeah, great call on expanding to twice the number of public-school classifications for literally no reason other than increased revenue. That helps the sport, right?
Listen, this outcome was expected. The NCHSAA Board has continually stood behind this anti-shot clock ideal. But not one vote? Pathetic. It’s weird that we’ve reached this juxtaposition where the school system is forced to rely on athletic revenue, specifically basketball, yet doesn’t want to take the necessary steps to expand the sport. That became increasingly clear nearly a decade ago when they stopped deeming scouting services worthy of media passes because it’s a profitable entity. Again, ironic. Good thing they added flag football though! “B-but it’ll cost more money to train someone to run the shot clock!” It’s a pretty simple concept to grasp. While these points may seem somewhat sharp, it’s just extremely disappointing that high school basketball (a pillar of North Carolina) doesn’t seem to have an actual advocate on the Board of Directors. No “difficult” decisions were made, those are merely semantics so soften the inevitable blow that we all knew was coming.