LONE TREE — Stall ball is dead.
A shot clock is coming to Colorado high school basketball at the varsity level in 2026-27, passing by a vote of 40-30 at Tuesday’s CHSAA Legislative Council meeting at the DCSD Legacy Campus.
The 35-second shot clock applies to all classifications, boys and girls.
Since the NFHS officially approved the shot clock in 2021 and other states began implementing it in 2022-23, Colorado basketball coaches and fans have been pushing for the shot clock here. It was voted upon in January’s Legislative Council meeting but failed, mostly due to financial concerns from smaller and rural school districts over implementation cost. That proposal called for a shot clock across all levels of play and for all classifications.
According to the basketball committee’s proposal on Tuesday, the financial impact per school ranges from $3,000 to $10,000, depending on each gym’s current electrical structure. Making the shot clock varsity-only would require schools to only have a shot clock in its main gym, and not in its auxiliary gym.
The shot clock should increase the pace of play at the varsity level, while also making the ends of close games more exciting. Previously, teams with a slight lead in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter would often run a clock-kill offense, especially in the state tournament. With a shot clock, that won’t be possible anymore, as it will force offenses to run their sets within the allotted 35 seconds.
The basketball committee argues that adding the shot clock will also better prepare Colorado high school players for college basketball, where the shot clock has long been standard.
In other basketball news out of the meeting, there are a few changes to the sport’s postseason format. Most notably, Class 6A and 5A’s postseason bracket is expanding from 32 to 40 teams, with the top 24 teams earning a bye in the first round.
Also, the Class 1A regional seeding process will be tweaked; Class 3A and 2A districts are eliminated in favor of moving to a seeded regional format; and Class 4A will extend its season by one week to also move to a seeded regional format.
This story will be updated.