NCAA Rules Committee proposes rule changes including coach challenges, shot continuation

The NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee has proposed major rule changes that are expected to improve the “flow” of play ahead of the 2025-26 season, according to a NCAA release Friday afternoon.

Chief among those recommendations is the addition of a single coach’s challenge at any point in the game “to review out-of-bounds calls, basket interference/goaltending and whether a secondary defender was in the restricted-area arc,” the release stated. Committee members also recommended changes to the rule regarding continuous motion on field goal attempts.

The rules committee also recommended the creation of a joint working group to gather feedback from conferences on potentially moving from halves to quarters, though any potential changes to the game’s format won’t come until the next rules change year. The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel must approve all rule proposals, with the panel scheduled to discuss these recommendations June 10.

The committee also proposed an elevated emphasis for officials to address delay-of-game tactics, limiting time at the monitor on reviews, and improving game administration efficiency while also reducing physicality.

“The committee focused on the flow of the game, especially the increased number of stoppages at the end of the game, this past season,” Karl Hicks, committee chair and associate commissioner for basketball at the American Athletic Conference, said in the release. “After soliciting input from the Division I Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee, Division I Men’s Basketball Competition Committee and the National Association of Basketball Coaches council, prioritizing the game flow at the end of the game was particularly important for our committee.

“Coach’s challenges were deemed to be the most efficient way to accomplish this goal. Data from the NCAA tournament and membership conferences showed a substantial number of reviews were on out-of-bounds plays. The committee looked at other basketball leagues around the world to see what the best solution would be for the NCAA, and the committee agreed with the NBA coach’s challenge system and its one plus one process.” 

Regarding the proposed coach’s challenge, much like in college football, teams must have a timeout to request an instant replay review. If the challenge review is successful, teams will be granted an additional video review challenge for the remainder of the game, including overtime. If unsuccessful, the team loses the ability to challenge any other calls in the game.

Coach challenges will not impact an officials’ use of instant replay for timing mistakes, scoring errors, shot clock violations, 2-point vs. 3-point field goal attempts, flagrant fouls, etc.

Among other proposals submitted Friday:

• Officials have the option to call a Flagrant 1 foul when a player is hit in the groin area. Currently officials can only call it a common foul or a Flagrant 2, resulting in an ejection.
• A player could be called for basket interference if they use the rim to gain an advantage.
• Should one of the two shot clocks at either end of the court become inoperable, the other shot clock could be utilized. Currently, both clocks are turned off if one is inoperable.