Coach’s challenges are coming to men’s college basketball.
The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved changes to the way replay reviews are conducted ahead of the 2025-26 season. Starting this fall, a coach can challenge an out-of-bounds call, basket interference and if a defender was in the restricted-area arc near the basket on a foul call at any point in the game.
Teams will be given one challenge and must have a timeout to use it. If the challenge is successful, the team will retain another challenge. If it isn’t, the team will be out of challenges for the rest of the game.
The system is similar to the one employed in the NBA, though coaches in the pro ranks have the ability to challenge foul calls.
The introduction of coach’s challenges will not, however, prohibit officials from using replay review on their own. Per the NCAA, officials can still instigate reviews for timing mistakes, scoring errors, shot clock violations, whether a basket was a 3-pointer or not and reviews on flagrant fouls. Replay reviews have increasingly taken more and more time during college basketball games and NCAA tournament games were frequently bogged down by reviews.
Given what can still be reviewed voluntarily by officials, it doesn’t seem likely that there will be a reduction in replay reviews next season.
Other changes for 2025-26
Men’s college basketball will also employ a continuation rule similar to the NBA’s next season. Per the NCAA, “an offensive player who ends his dribble going toward the basket and absorbs contact from the defense will be permitted to pivot or complete the step the player is on and finish the field goal attempt.” Previously, a player could only head to the free-throw line for a shooting foul if he was directly fouled in his shooting motion.
Additionally, officials will be able to call incidental contact to the groin area as a Flagrant 1 foul. NCAA rules have previously deemed all contact to the groin area worthy of a flagrant as a Flagrant 2-level foul that resulted in the automatic ejection of the offending player.
One thing that isn’t changing, however, is the way that college basketball games are broken into halves. While the women’s game is played with four 10-minute quarters, the men’s game is sticking with two 20-minute halves. A big reason why? Commercials. Each half currently features four media timeouts.
“In considering the decisions last month, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee had conversations about ways to continue this direction in the upcoming years, which includes positive momentum for moving the men’s game from halves to quarters,” the release said. “The committee realizes there are hurdles to implementing the quarter format to the game, including the structuring of media timeouts to accommodate commercial inventory.”