PIAA survey asks: Should high school basketball have a shot clock?

By: Chris Harlan
Wednesday, April 16, 2025 | 6:31 PM

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Reset the clock on the shot clock debate.

The PIAA will soon send schools a survey asking whether they want a shot clock added to high school basketball. That’ll rekindle a debate that somewhat stalled three years ago after a different PIAA survey showed opinions were evenly split, prompting the basketball steering committee to vote it down.

PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi shared plans for the new survey Wednesday while speaking to schools at the WPIAL annual meeting. He said a separate PIAA survey this spring would seek feedback on adding a shot clock to boys and girls lacrosse.

“We would like to get any and all information on whether you would like to see that shot clock,” Lombardi said. “That’s up to you folks. We don’t have a dog in the fight. We want to follow the membership.”

The basketball survey will be sent to schools in the next two weeks, said PIAA associate executive director Patrick Gebhart. It will include a brief explanation of the 2021 NFHS rule that permitted states to adopt a 35-second shot clock and ask schools to essentially vote yes or no.

Gebhart said a section of the survey will solicit feedback from schools.

“What the ADs have told us for years is, not only is it the cost of the clock (that’s prohibitive),” Lombardi said Wednesday. “It’s getting an operator. It’s the training of an operator. It’s putting new rules in the rulebook for the shot clock and training the officials.”

That was the case in 2022 when a survey found that 50.8% of responding PIAA schools opposed a shot clock and 49.2% were in favor. The PIAA had considered adding a clock for the 2024-25 season until the basketball committee voted 9-5 in opposition.

Gebhart said the PIAA will accept one survey response per school.

“We ask that the decision makers in the schools — superintendents, principals, athletic directors, coaches — discuss the issue prior to responding,” he said.

Gebhart said the survey was requested by the PIAA basketball steering committee but emphasized that any potential action to implement a shot clock must be approved by the board of directors.

Thirty-one states and Washington, D.C., will use shot clocks in some capacity by the start of the 2026-27 season, according to the Associated Press, citing statistics from National Federation of State High School Associations.

“This is something that is going across the country and we wanted to get in front of,” Lombardi said

Lombardi said a lacrosse survey was requested by PIAA District 1, which includes suburban Philadelphia schools. While NFHS rules don’t permit shot clocks in high school lacrosse, Lombardi noted the New York State Public High School Athletic Association received permission to use them on a trial basis.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.