The NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Rules Committee at its May 3-6 meeting in Phoenix will discuss adding a restricted arc in the lane to help clarify player-control (charge)/block calls in the men’s game.

If the concept moves forward, the restricted arc would be painted on the court in front of or near the basket. Any recommendation by the committee would have to be approved by the Playing Rules Oversight Panel before it is implemented.

Details of plays involving contact within the arc will have to be worked out.

One possibility is if contact occurred between the offensive and a secondary defensive player inside the arc, a block could be called on the defender if he had not established position before the contact in that area. Another possibility is there could be no call on the play if the defender had established position but was too close to the basket to draw a foul on the offensive player. In that scenario, an offensive player-control foul or charge would not be called.

The committee has researched adding the restricted arc for three years.

“We’ve studied the arc being located four feet from the basket, and in the experiment we found there are approximately 3.6 restricted-area plays that occur during a game,” said NCAA Men’s Basketball Secretary-Rules Editor Ed Bilik.

That raises a question about whether the play happens frequently enough to warrant a rules change. The committee has also studied the arc being located two and three feet in front of the basket.

A survey taken this year showed about two-thirds of Division I, II and III coaches, commissioners and on-court officials favored adding the arc. Only about one-third of the conference coordinator of officials favor the concept.

There is some talk of placing the restricted arc a foot in front of the basket because most of the feedback the committee has received regards the contact occurring under the rim.

“That puts the arc almost underneath the basket,” Bilik said. “That would satisfy the concern most people have. A person who positions himself there was never protecting the basket. He’s there to draw a charge only.”

The committee will have to determine whether such a rules change would hurt the balance between offense and defense.

“We want to make sure defenders are trying to protect the basket,” Bilik said.

The committee could also decide to make it an experimental rule and study the matter further.

Another item on the agenda is to review the effects of moving the three-point line back a foot to 20 feet, 9 inches. In Division I, teams attempted an average of 18.33 three-point field goals and made 6.31 per game.

Both of those are declines from the 2007-08 season when teams attempted 19.07 and made 6.72, which were both all-time highs in the sport since the three-point line was instituted before the 1986-87 season.

Division I men’s basketball teams shot 34.4 percent from behind the arc this season, compared to making 35.2 percent of their three-pointers in 2007-08.

The committee made the change in hopes of bringing more balance to the game and improve spacing on the floor.