INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - College basketball players might want to start working on longer shots.
Two decades after adding the 3-point line, the NCAA men's basketball rules committee approved a measure Thursday that will move the line back one foot — from 19 feet, 9 inches to 20 feet, 9 inches. If approved by the playing rules oversight committee on May 25, it would mark the first major change to 3-pointers since their adoption. The change would not take place until November 2008.
The move comes after years of debate about extending the line. Rules committee chairman Larry Keating said two proposals were considered. The other would have moved the line to 20 feet, 6 inches, the same distance as international 3-pointers. Both are shorter than the NBA line, which ranges from 23 feet, 9 inches at the top of the key to 22 feet at its nearest point in the baseline corners.
"We made it a point to come up with a distance that was correct for us and that didn't necessarily mimic the international line," Keating said.
The women's basketball rules committee did not adopt the change and will keep the 3-point line at 19 feet, 9 inches.
