Proposal: Make Women's Game 4 Quarters

UConn coach Geno Auriemma is a proponent of the change.

On Friday, the NCAA Women’s Basketball Rules Committee proposed and recommended that instead of two 20-minute halves, the women's game move to four 10-minute quarters. UConn coach Geno Auriemma has been a proponent of the change and, not surprisingly, he's happy it's being discussed seriously.

“What a great step forward for our game,” Auriemma said in a statement, via SNY.com's Carl Adamec. “As the game becomes more global each year, it’s important that we start the process toward standardizing the rules. This is just the beginning of what I hope are many other changes to improve this great game.”

Nothing's official until it's approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel, which will convene via conference call on June 8. Still, it's a step in the right direction, one that could make the game better.

The rules committee is very excited about the change to the four-quarter format for the 2015-16 season,” said University of Richmond coach Michael Shafer, who is also the chair of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Rules Committee. “We believe this change, along with the associated changes to the timeout and foul rules, will address flow of the game and physicality. The overall format will strengthen the connection of college basketball with women’s basketball globally.”

In the new format, team fouls would be reset to zero at the beginning of each quarter (currently, it's reset to zero at the beginning of each half).

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