The NCAA is introducing a new rule to college basketball that the NBA is already familiar with.
NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel on Tuesday approved the addition of coach’s challenges for the 2025-26 season, according to Jeff Borzello of ESPN. Coaches will be allowed to challenge out-of-bounds calls, basket interference or goaltending, and whether a secondary defender was in the restricted area.
Similar to the NBA, coaches will only be allowed to challenge plays if they have at least one timeout remaining. A successful challenge will entitle a coach to a second challenge, but an unsuccessful one means the team will be out of challenges for the rest of the game.
It was perhaps inevitable that something like this would make its way to the NCAA after being introduced in the NBA in 2019. Challenges have been successfully used in some pivotal moments, and a well-timed challenge can certainly impact a game. Similarly, poor use of a challenge can cost a team a timeout and leave them with no recourse against a bad call later in the game.
There have been some unpopular side effects of the challenge rule in the NBA, and critics argue that they also slow down games. College coaches will have to make some adjustments to get the best out of the system, just as their NBA counterparts had to do.
