# Why no quarters in college basketball? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 21, 2007, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-quarters-in-college-basketball/423505 "2007-10-21T21:52:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2007, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-quarters-in-college-basketball/423505/1 "2007-10-21T21:52:59Z")
Every other level that I know of has 4 quarters, college just has 2 halves. Is there any reason for this? ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2007, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-quarters-in-college-basketball/423505/2 "2007-10-21T22:12:50Z")
It was just the way the game evolved. Basketball at all levels started out with halves. I believe high school basketball switched to quarters at a very early stage because they wanted more time for the players to rest, but that’s a guess. I assume that pro basketball adopted quarters for a similar reason and also because they had longer periods. International basketball has halves. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2007, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-quarters-in-college-basketball/423505/3 "2007-10-21T22:19:04Z")
And now I see that international ball is actually 4 10-minute quarters. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2007, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-quarters-in-college-basketball/423505/4 "2007-10-22T15:40:56Z")
[QUOTE=BobT] I believe high school basketball switched to quarters at a very early stage because they wanted more time for the players to rest, but that’s a guess. I assume that pro basketball adopted quarters for a similar reason and also because they had longer periods. [/QUOTE] I assume that this is true as well. ISTM that college hoops should adopt the same strategy. Especially since it allows for 2 extra TV timeouts and adds the potential for 2 more buzzer beater shots which arguably are the most exciting part of the game. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-quarters-in-college-basketball/423505/5 "2007-10-24T00:52:59Z")
Bump. Anybody have a definitive answer? ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-quarters-in-college-basketball/423505/6 "2007-10-24T00:59:34Z")
[QUOTE=KRM] Bump. Anybody have a definitive answer? [/QUOTE] The machine only accepts dollar bills? ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-quarters-in-college-basketball/423505/7 "2007-10-24T02:24:35Z")
James Naismith’s [original rules of basketball](http://www.usabasketball.com/rules/naismith_original_rules.html) provided for halves instead of quarters. Colleges began playing under that rule in the 1890’s and never changed. So the question is asking why something _didn’t_ happen (the switch to quarters which took place at every other level), rather than why something _did_, which is always more difficult to answer. College basketball never changed because nobody ever saw a good reason to change. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-quarters-in-college-basketball/423505/8 "2007-10-24T06:33:06Z")
According to the NCAA record book, college basketball used four 10-minute quarters for three seasons: 1951-52, 52-53, 53-54. Then the NCAA switched back and likely never will switch to quarters because there really is no point. Fans are used to 2 20-minute halves and there are enough TV timeouts built in to the game anyway. I found newspaper articles about the switch at the time but it didn’t seem to be a big issue to switch to quarters nor to switch back to halves. The 1951 article indicated that the pros and high school were already using quarters at the time. I can only guess that major college coaches didn’t like quarters. Also, basketball has a long tradition of tweaking its rules as the times and players change.