The NCAA Men's Basketball Committee proposes multiple rule changes

Pace of play, the decrease in scoring and the increase of physicality have been three areas that are viewed as the "Achilles heel" for college basketball.

This has sparked controversy and outcry from fans and media members, who were pushing the NCAA to make significant changes that will help move one of the best basketball leagues in the world in the correct direction.

The NCAA Rules Committee did move one step closer to implementing these significant rules for the 2015-16 season Friday as they released multiple rule change proposals for the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel to vote on come June 8th.

"The committee has taken significant steps to reverse the trends in the sport that are concerning to the men's college basketball world," Belmont head coach and chair of the committee Rick Byrd said. "We wanted members who had strong opinions to express them and they did."

The most interesting rule change was the 30-second shot clock, which was experimented in all postseason tournaments (except for the NCAA Tournament) during this past season. This is the first time since 1993-94 that the shot clock has been reduced (45 to 35 seconds).

Byrd mentioned that if the NCAA, it's coaches and fans are not fond of the 30 second shot clock and efficiency decreases there is an chance the committee could change the shot-clock back to 35 seconds next offseason.

The committee also decided that in order to further improve the pace of the game timeout restrictions had to be at the forefront.

The members adjusted the media timeout procedures by allowing a timeout that is called 30 seconds before an expected media timeout to become that stoppage of play for a commercial break. They also removed the ability of the coaches to call timeouts while the ball is live and added that the 10 second backcourt violation will not reset when a player calls a timeout.

"Another concern has been the flow of the game and the amount of stoppages of play," Georgia State head coach and president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches Ron Hunter said. "The elimination of a 30-second timeout in the second half as well as the possibility of a technical foul for any unnecessary delays should help in that area."

In order to cut down on the physicality of the game and charges near the basket, the NCAA has proposed to expand the lane from three feet to four feet. This was also experimented with during postseason tournaments this past season and block/charges near the basket decreased from 2.77 per game to 1.96.

In addition to the lane designation, college basketball will experiment with six fouls per player in the 2016 postseason tournaments (NIT).

There is one more step in the process (the June 8th vote) but this is a positive step in the right direction for NCAA Men's College Basketball.