WIAA moves closer to bringing shot clock to high school basketball

Proponents of bringing a shot clock to Wisconsin high school basketball earned their biggest win yet earlier this summer with teams now having the option to use shot clocks during nonconference games.

The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Board of Control passed a pair of shot clock-related measures in June, one of which allows the use of a 35-second shot clock for both boys and girls varsity basketball nonconference games if both teams agree to it starting with the upcoming 2026-27 season.

“I think it’s about time that they did that,” said Blair-Taylor head boys basketball coach Randy Storlie, who serves as president of the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA). “We’ve been pushing for at least five years now to get the shot clock into the high school game. More states have the shot clock than not. It’s like thirty-five states already have it, and nobody’s repealed it, so it must be a good thing.”

This season will serve as a trial run of sorts for the shot clock in a limited capacity before a vote on full implementation of the shot clock in Wisconsin high school basketball next spring.

A proposal on full implementation of the 35-second shot clock for the 2028-29 season is going before the full WIAA membership for approval at the annual meeting in April 2027.

Opponents of the shot clock often cite the costs associated with it and the potential difficulty of finding volunteers to operate the shot clock during games as main reasons for their opposition to it.

However, the momentum seems to be moving in the direction of shot clock proponents, and Storlie is cautiously optimistic of full implementation passing next April.

“You can never count your chickens before they’re hatched, but I just think there’s so many schools out there that are more in favor of it than against it,” Storlie said. “And all the polls that (the WBCA) have kind of put out, the schools have also been in favor of it. But you can never tell until the vote is actually taken.”

A 2025 WBCA survey conducted by School Perceptions of coaches, athletic directors, superintendents and principals around the state found that, of the 919 respondents, 57% were in favor of bringing the 35-second shot clock to Wisconsin high school basketball, 30% were against it and 13% were undecided.

Another measure backed by Storlie and the WBCA is the expansion of the boys and girls state tournaments to include more teams. Full state tournament expansion would feature eight teams qualifying from all five divisions. That comes out to roughly 8% of Wisconsin schools making it to the state tournament, which Storlie notes is closer to the percentage of schools that qualify for the state basketball tournaments in Minnesota and Iowa.

The state tournament expansion measure was presented to the WIAA’s Board of Control but voted down in June. Despite this, Storlie is believes they’re making progress toward getting that eventually approved. 

“I think that’s something that is not going to go away. Because a couple years ago when we got this going, nobody on the Board of Control voted for it,” Storlie said. “This time at least two have voted for it, and we know of a couple other ones who were kind of going back and forth and didn’t know which one. So, it’s making progress, basically like it did with the shot clock.”