One big rule change could be coming to women’s college basketball

There could be a rule change coming to women’s college basketball in the 2025-26 season. If approved, it will empower coaches, and the hope is that it improves the flow of the game.

The NCAA Women’s Basketball Rules Committee met this week in Indianapolis and on Friday announced that they are recommending adding a coach’s video review challenge for the upcoming season. To be enacted, the proposal has to be approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel, which meets on June 10.

The NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee also recommended a coaches challenge rule.

Should the rule change be approved, coaches will be able to challenge out-of-bounds violations, 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.

With the exception of whether a foul was assessed to the correct player, referees would not be able to initiate reviews on these calls, only coaches.

To make a challenge call, coaches do not need a timeout to spare. However, if the coach loses the challenge call with no timeouts left, their team will be given an “administrative technical foul for an excessive timeout.”

Nicki Collen, the head coach at Baylor and the rules committee chair, explained that the change would hopefully improve the flow of the game. The challenge rule was also deployed as an experiment during the WBIT.

“The committee was concerned with pace of play and the number of reviews occurring at the end of games,” Collen said in a statement from the NCAA. “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 is also recommending a handful of other rule changes, such as setting the shot clock to 20 seconds when the offense is awarded possession in its front court after a dead ball, eliminating the rule that jerseys need to be tucked in, and allowing players to complete a jump stop when their feet land at the same time.

Also, if a player competes in a game that they are supposed to be suspended for, the head coach and that player will be suspended for the next game.