Are Basketball Games Too Long?
Boise State has a big game coming up on national television tonight.
While it's great to be in the spotlight, with the TV time outs and regular time outs, are the games too long? Some basketball games might get a whole lot shorter.
The NBA is thinking about shortening the length of games in general, because our attention spans have gotten so short.
Studies have been done and researchers have realized that most of us have the attention span of a goldfish, which is about eight seconds. That's all we can handle before we have to look away, move on to the next task, take a drink of water, or check the phone. Again.
An some basketball games can move painfully slow. If an NBA game is close at the end and both teams are using time outs and fouling each other, 45 seconds can take ten or fifteen minutes in real time. That's enough time to text five friends, Snapchat four more, scroll through Facebook, and place an online shopping order.
Does anyone really just sit and watch a basketball game? The NBA is wondering. And it's an issue that most competitive sports leagues are worried about. League leaders might decide to shorten the games to fit our new high-tech, attention-challenged lifestyles.
Boise State hosts New Mexico tonight at 9pm MT at Taco Bell Arena and it's on ESPNU.
College basketball is usually more exciting and fast-paced than the NBA, so we won't have any trouble paying attention to this one. Plus, we have an emotional investment in the game since it's our team. Hmm....maybe that's it. It's the emotional investment that leads to a longer attention span. Heads up on that, NBA.