GMC joins growing trend, institutes running clock rule for basketball blowouts in 2025-26

Union County has been doing it, the Skyland Conference began using it this year, and the Greater Middlesex Conference has adopted it for 2025-26.

The GMC’s Athletic Directors Thursday night voted to institute a running clock rule that the NFHS has allowed as an option since the 2022-23 season. It will begin next year in the GMC for both girls’ and boys’ basketball.

Similar to what many know from football for several years now, the running clock would take effect when a team goes up by 30 points at any point in the second half. It could conceivably start right at the beginning of the second half if the halftime lead is 30 or more points.

The clock would go back to normal operation if the margin got back to ten points or less. (There’s no return to a normal clock in football.)

The idea is to speed up games that are blowouts so they don’t become even bigger blowouts.

“The reason I like the rule,” says GMC President Mike Pede, “is because if you’re up by 30 and you put other kids in the game to get a chance to play, you’re telling them ‘You can’t score, you can’t run our offense,’ and that’s not really fair to the kids who come to practice every day.”

“It’s going to be a 40 or 45 point game, which is better than 70,” Pede added.

The clock would only stop for injuries, time outs, or other official stoppages. It would not stop for out-of-bounds plays, jump balls, foul shots, and the like.

Overall, reaction in leagues that have used it – like the Skyland Conference – have generally been positive; it’s seen as at least somewhat of a remedy for competitive imbalances that can’t always be accounted for on a year-to-year basis.