PIAA board supports adding shot clock to high school basketball for 2028-29 season

By: Chris Harlan
Wednesday, July 16, 2025 | 1:59 PM

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The PIAA has endorsed adding a shot clock to Pennsylvania high school basketball, a move supported by a majority of WPIAL schools.

The PIAA board took a big step Wednesday and voted 22-9 to adopt the 35-second clock for the 2028-29 season. However, the motion was approved only on a first-reading basis, meaning it still must pass two more votes in the months ahead. The board meets again in September.

The shot clock debate has simmered for years, but now the board has joined in.

“I admire the board’s discussion today because they really put everything out on the table to understand rationale for and against (the shot clock),” said PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi, adding that the talk lasted at least a half hour. “The conversation was very lively and very educated. It wasn’t reactionary. It wasn’t emotional. It was real nuts-and-bolts facts.”

All three WPIAL representatives on the board voted in favor of adding the clock, said WPIAL chief operating officer Vince Sortino, who attended the meeting in State College.

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 National Federation of State High School Associations. With support growing for the clocks, Sortino said adding them here was “inevitable.”

“The question was: ‘When is it going to happen?’ ” Sortino said. “This year? Next year? … The discussion (in recent weeks) was about timing.”

The NFHS, which writes the rulebook used by the PIAA, allowed states the option of adopting the shot clock starting in the 2022-23 season. Until now, the PIAA showed reluctance. But the board was swayed by a recent PIAA survey that found 55% of basketball-playing schools statewide favored a shot clock.

The support proved even stronger in Western Pennsylvania. Of the 99 WPIAL schools that responded, 65 wanted a clock, Sortino said.

When the WPIAL was broken down by classification, only Class A schools opposed the clock. Sortino said their most prevalent concern was an added cost for equipment and personnel, which can be more burdensome for small school districts. For that reason, the PIAA plan delays implementation until 2028.

Besides purchasing and installing the timing devices — which can cost thousands of dollars — schools must take on the added expense of paying a shot clock operator.

“The big issue was finance,” Sortino said. “By giving districts a three-year buffer, that allows them ample time to budget.”

In the WPIAL, the largest schools — Class 6A — unanimously favored the clocks, 12-0, according to the PIAA survey. There also was strong support among WPIAL Class 5A schools with 15 saying “yes” and four saying “no.”

The other classifications varied.

Class 4A: seven yes, six no.

Class 3A: 15 yes, six no.

Class 2A: 10 yes, nine no.

Class A: six yes, nine no.

If ultimately approved, the PIAA plan would require shot clocks for varsity and junior varsity games but not for junior high competition.

“The commentary (of the board) was that junior high is more developmental,” Lombardi said. “Junior varsity in many cases plays the same night as the varsity, and we don’t want to have two sets of rules on the same night.”

Wednesday’s vote came somewhat as a surprise. The PIAA board decided to add a shot clock despite receiving no recommendation to do so from its basketball steering committee.

The committee met in June and didn’t reach a consensus, but the disagreement then largely involved settling on a timeline. The committee narrowly voted down a motion that recommended adding the clocks for the 2027-28 season.

“There wasn’t really discussion about whether it was a good or bad thing, whether it would or won’t benefit the game,” said Sortino, who represented the WPIAL at the basketball committee meeting. “It was more cut-and-dried: ‘When?’ ”

The PIAA organizes its seasons into two-year cycles, and 2027 falls in the middle of a cycle, which led to some opposition among the committee. The board’s decision Wednesday aligns with the start of a two-year cycle in 2028.

After approving the motion on a first reading, Lombardi said the board referred the plan back to the basketball committee for further discussion.

“The board wants to make sure every voice is heard,” he said, “that the final decision is in the best interest of basketball, the schools, the players and the association.”

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.