By: Chris Harlan
Wednesday, July 16, 2025 | 1:59 PM
Chartiers Valley’s Julius Best scores over Peters Township’s Jake Wetzel during the WPIAL Class 5A championship Saturday, March 1, 2025 at Petersen Events Center.
The PIAA took a big step toward adding a shot clock to high school basketball in Pennsylvania, a move a majority of WPIAL schools say they favor.
The PIAA board voted 22-9 on Wednesday to adopt the clocks for the 2028-29 season. However, the motion was approved only on a first-reading basis, meaning it still must pass two more votes.
The three WPIAL representatives on the PIAA board voted in favor of the shot clock, said WPIAL chief operating officer Vince Sortino, who attended the meeting in State College.
Thirty-one states and Washington, D.C., will use shot clocks in some capacity by the start of the 2026-27 season, according to statistics from the National Federation of State High School Associations. With support growing for the clocks, Sortino said adding them here was “inevitable.”
“The question was: When is it going to happen?” he said. “This year? Next year? Middle of the cycle or the next cycle? The discussion (in recent weeks) was about timing.”
A recent statewide survey by the PIAA found 55% of basketball-playing schools favored a shot clock, a percentage that was even higher around the WPIAL. Of the 99 WPIAL schools that responded, 65 wanted a clock, Sortino said.
Broken down by classification, only WPIAL Class A schools opposed the shot clock. Sortino said the largest concern was the added cost of equipment and personnel, which can burden smaller schools more. In part, that’s why the PIAA motion approved Wednesday waits until the 2028-29 season.
“The big issue was finance,” Sortino said. “By giving districts a three-year buffer, that allows them ample time to budget.”
In the WPIAL, the largest schools — Class 6A — unanimously favored adding the clocks, 12-0, according to the PIAA survey. There also was significant support among 5A schools with 15 of the 19 responses in favor.
The other classifications varied.
Class 4A: seven yes, six no.
Class 3A: 15 yes, six no.
Class 2A: 10 yes, nine no.
Class A: six yes, nine no.
The PIAA board voted to add a shot clock despite receiving no recommendation from its basketball steering committee.
The committee met in June and couldn’t reach a consensus on when the clocks should be implemented. The committee narrowly voted down a motion that would’ve recommended adding the clocks for the 2027-28 season. The PIAA organizes seasons into two-year cycles and 2027 falls in the middle of a cycle, which led to some opposition.
The PIAA board decision Wednesday aligns with the start of the following two-year cycle in 2028.
“There wasn’t really discussion about whether it was a good or bad thing, whether it would or won’t benefit the game,” Sortino said. “It was more cut-and-dried: ‘When?’”
Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.