How many quarters are there in a college basketball game?

To define college Basketball; one can say college basketball is played between teams from different colleges and universities. The first of its recorded games in history was around the 1890s in the United States, which was played to keep a check of athletic students’ health without getting hurt, soon turning the most popular sport among the teenagers thus popularizing it as college basketball, which is played among college-going students. These games originated in the United States under the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Though the NCAA is the major governing body for intercollegiate athletics. Under NCAA, there are three divisions for participating schools, and matches. These divisions are mainly created to promote college sports, and all the major college-related sports activity happens within these divisions which allows the schools with membership to award the students with athletic scholarships and much more.

Coming to the main discussion of the article; “How many quarters are there in a college basketball game? “, to understand this better one should first understand the playing period, halves and quarters, and also that the college basketball game rules and divisions are different for the Men’s Basketball games and the Women’s College Basketball games.

College basketball started playing halves when the game was created around the 1890s. But the furthermore equal parts of halves into quarters was incorporated for the Women’s College Basketball games was incorporated in 1951. The first women’s College Basketball games were played around 1893 when each basket made it to a point, and the game lasted for two 15- minute halves. Around 2015-2016 the NCAA changed the rules to 10 minute quarters from 20 minutes halves.

What is a playing period?

It is a division of time in a sport or any game, in which the play takes place. Many games are divided into a fixed number of periods, which are named for the number of divisions like halves and quarters. These divisions are time-bound. Few other games are divided by different terminologies for time division in the playing period which is not time bounded are innings, ends, and sets. Some games have a fixed length of game time and are bound by other rules baseball, softball, and many more.

Understanding of Halves and Quarters :

  • Halves – College basketball games are divided into a fixed number of periods, which are named for the number of divisions like halves when the game is divided into two equal parts of fixed playing time.
  • Quarters – College basketball games are divided into a fixed number of periods, which are named for the number of divisions like quarters, when the game is divided into two halves and then the halves are subdivided into two furthermore equal parts of fixed playing time. An additional quarter may be played in the event of a tie or any other circumstancial instances at the end of the fourth quarter.

The differences in rules for the Men’s Basketball games and the Women’s College Basketball games are as under :

Men’s College Basketball game rules, quarter distribution, and game timingsWomen’s College Basketball game rules, quarter distribution, and game timings
The Men’s College Basketball game does not consist of quarters but only halves.The Women’s College Basketball games consist of four quarters.
The two halves are 20 minutes each.The quarters are 10 minutes each.
The halftime is provided between the two halves.The halftime is provided between the second and the third quarters.
The average game timings for the Men’s College Basketball game is somewhere between 1.5hours to 2 hours.The average game timings for the Women’s College Basketball game is also approximately between 1.5hours to 2 hours.
The Men’s College Basketball games are usually longer as compared to the Women’s College Basketball games.The Women’s College Basketball games are usually shorter as compared to the Men’s College Basketball games.
The major reason for the longer duration of the Men’s College Basketball games is that the foul shots last an entire half instead of a quarter which is time-consuming.As the Women’s College Basketball games are divided quarterly, the foul shots last only for a quarter, thus less time-consuming than the Men’s College Basketball games.
In the Men’s College Basketball game, the 40 minutes of play is affected by various interruptions like timeouts, fouls, free throws, halftime, dead balls, and overtimes; thus increasing the game duration up to 2 hours approximately.In the Women’s College Basketball game, the 40 minutes of play is affected by various interruptions like timeouts, fouls, free throws, halftime, dead balls, and overtimes; thus increasing the game duration up to 1.5hours to 2 hours approximately.
Four timeouts are provided during the game :
One timeout which is 60 seconds long
Three timeouts which are 30 seconds each.
Four timeouts are provided during the game :
One timeout which is 60 seconds long
Three timeouts which are 30 seconds each.
In the Men’s College Basketball game, a team must use one of the timeouts in the first half itself otherwise the team loses it. The team is only allowed to carry 3 timeouts into the second half. In the Women’s College Basketball game, there are no restrictions regarding the use of timeouts and the team can use them whenever required.
In the Men’s College Basketball game, there are 4 scheduled TV timeouts, per half. In the Women’s College Basketball game, there is one TV timeout under the 5-minute mark within each quarter.
The Men’s College Basketball game has a 30-second shot clock.The Women’s College Basketball game has a 30-second shot clock.

Leave a Comment