The women’s and men’s NCAA basketball tournaments share exciting elements, but there’s one key difference to understand while tracking your brackets: women’s college basketball games span four quarters, while men’s games are separated into two halves.
The NCAA rulebook breaks it down:
Women:
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Playing time for varsity games shall consist of four 10-minute quarters with a halftime intermission of 15 minutes. The intermission between the first and second quarters (first half) and third and fourth quarters (second half) shall be 75 seconds in a nonmedia game. For games using the electronic-media timeout format, the intermission between quarters shall be 75 seconds or the length of the electronic-media timeout. Each overtime shall be five minutes in length with a one-minute intermission before each.
Men:
Why do women play quarters and men play halves?
Both women and men played two halves until 2015, when the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved the switch for the women’s game to shift to four quarters beginning in the 2015-16 season. The change was raised by the NCAA Women’s Basketball Rules Committee, which thought that four quarters would improve the game’s flow. Because of this shift, women’s teams now shoot two free throws on the fifth team foul in every quarter instead of two free throws on the 10th team foul in each half. A one-and-one bonus was granted after the seventh team foul in the halves format.
Men’s basketball previously played 10-minute quarters for a brief period from the 1951-52 season to the 1954-55 season. They’ve been playing 20-minute halves ever since.
Will men’s college basketball ever go to four 10-minute quarters?
ESPN’s Jay Bilas thinks it should.
“How can the game be better? By changing some of its archaic rules. First, men’s college basketball needs to go to four 10-minute quarters. Right now, this is the only level of basketball in the entire world that does not have quarters.”
Meanwhile, NBA commissioner Adam Silver is even a fan of shortening the professional game to 10-minute quarters.
So, if you’re catching up on a women’s or men’s score during the 2025 NCAA tournament and things aren’t looking great, there may still be hope — and time.
Check out ESPN’s women’s basketball and men’s basketball hub pages for more.
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