The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel on Tuesday approved several measures designed to help improve the flow of men’s basketball games, with the addition of coach’s challenges the biggest change.
Coaches can now challenge, at any point in the game, out-of-bounds calls, basket interference/goaltending and whether a secondary defender was in the restricted-area arc.
Borrowing from the NBA’s challenge rules, teams must have a timeout to request a review. If the challenge is successful, teams will get one additional replay challenge for the rest of the game. If the initial challenge is unsuccessful, the team will not be able to challenge the rest of the game.
While officials can still initiate video reviews on goaltending and restricted arc plays in the final two minutes of games, out-of-bounds reviews can now only be initiated by a coach’s challenge. Officials will also continue to use instant replay for timing and scoring issues and flagrant fouls.
There is also “positive momentum” for moving from halves to quarters, the NCAA said Tuesday. The NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee has recommended NCAA Division I conferences create a joint working group to explore the potential change, while acknowledging there are obstacles to overcome before implementing it.
The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel also approved a change to the flagrant foul rule on plays when a player makes contact to an opponent’s groin. Officials now have the option to call a Flagrant 1 foul. Previously, officials could only call a common foul or a Flagrant 2 foul, which results in the offending player’s ejection.
Perhaps the biggest example came last February, when Texas Tech star JT Toppin was ejected after his leg made seemingly inadvertent contact with Houston’s Joseph Tugler’s groin while jumping to make a crosscourt pass. Tech coach Grant McCasland was also ejected and Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt called the decision “egregious.”
