It is now official: there will never again be stickers or decals on college basketball courts.
This, according to a release from the NCAA (which should make it pretty official):
The rule change doesn’t ban decals or advertisements. Those are still allowed, which means that promoters can still rake in the money from their advertisers. We could still get stuck with the courts of the in-season tournaments looking like the boards surrounding a construction site in Lower Manhattan. The difference is that they must be painted on the floor, the same way that the three-point line is painted on the floor.
This is a good thing. Those decals were dangerous, especially when they got moisture on them. You know how slippery the tiles of your bathroom floor are if you accidentally splash some water out of the showers? That’s a pretty good comparison.
We are lucky that this rule change was made before some kid shredded his knee on them.
Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.