NCAA women's rules committee proposes coach's challenge to initiate video review on variety of plays

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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The NCAA Women's Basketball Rules Committee proposed that a coach's challenge be required to initiate a video review of out-of-bounds calls and three other types of plays.

The committee met in Indianapolis this week and voted to recommend the change for the 2025-26 season.

Proposals must be approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel, which is scheduled to meet June 10.

Under the proposal, plays that could be challenged at any point during the game include out-of-bounds calls, backcourt violations, whether a change in team possession occurred before the ruling of a foul where free throws would be involved and whether a foul was assessed to the correct player.

Officials could not initiate reviews on these calls with the exception of whether a foul was assessed to the correct player.

Teams would not be required to have a timeout to make a video review challenge in NCAA women’s basketball competition. However, a failed challenge would result in an administrative technical foul for an excessive timeout.

“The committee was concerned with pace of play and the number of reviews occurring at the end of games,” said Nicki Collen, rules committee chair and coach at Baylor. “This was also an experimental rule in this year’s WBIT. By removing the option for officials to review called out-of-bounds violations and allowing coaches to challenge the call, you increase flow at the end of games while still allowing for the opportunity to get the call right.”

The committee also proposed, among other things, setting the shot clock to 20 seconds when, following a dead ball, the offense is awarded the ball in its front court; eliminating the rule that jerseys need to be tucked in; a team technical foul for using excessive timeouts or playing with six players when the ball becomes live; and suspending the player and head coach for one game if the player competes in a game that the player should have missed due to a suspension.

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