Men’s College Basketball Adds Coach’s Challenge, but No Quarters—Yet

College basketball continues to take from the NBA. 

Starting next season, coaches will be able to challenge at least one play per game. The NCAA announced the news in a release on Wednesday along with other minor changes, while it continues to explore a change from halves to quarters. 

Coaches can challenge out-of-bounds calls, basket interference/goaltending, and if a secondary defender was in the restricted area. 

Coaches must have a timeout to challenge a play and will be awarded an additional one if their first challenge is successful. If it’s not, a team loses the ability to challenge a call for the rest of the game. 

The NBA instituted the challenge at the beginning of the 2019–20 season with some similarities and differences to what the NCAA is doing. In the NBA, each team starts the game with two challenges and can earn a third if either of its first two challenges are successful. 

Challenges in the NBA can only be used to review personal fouls charged to the team challenging the call as well as out-of-bounds violations and goaltending/basket interference. NBA coaches can’t challenge calls in the final two minutes of regulation or overtime because those calls are already reviewed exclusively by on-court referees. 

Similarly to the NBA, college officials can initiate video reviews on basket interference/goaltending calls and plays in the restricted arc in the final two minutes of the second half and in overtime. But NCAA officials can only review an out-of-bounds call if a coach challenges it.  NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee members, who approved the changes, said the coaches challenge will impact game flow, the NCAA’s release said. 

While the NCAA is adopting the challenge, it will continue to play 20-minute halves instead of switching to 10-minute quarters, which women’s college basketball switched to for the 2015–16 season. The NCAA said there’s “positive momentum” to switch the men’s game to quarters, but hurdles remain, including the structuring of media timeouts, which currently come at the under-16, 12, eight and four-minute marks of each respective half. The committee recommended that conferences create a joint working group to provide feedback on a possible switch from halves to quarters.