Next, Gilmore asked how come professional and high school basketball games are divided into four periods of 12 and 8 minutes each, respectively, while college basketball games are divided into two periods of 20 minutes each? This one stumped Packer, so he referred me to the only guy who he claimed knew more about sports than him -- his father, former Wake Forest great and longtime national basketball broadcaster Billy Packer.
"College basketball used to be in quarters as well, until the NCAA rules committee decided to do it by halves," said the elder Packer. "As to why -- if all NCAA tournament and rules committee meetings were held in some Brooklyn tenement, the rules would never change. But because they're always held at beautiful resort locations, they have to come up with some reason for being there. That's probably about as good an answer as you're going to get."
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