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.
