NCAA approves several new rule changes for college basketball
New rule changes are coming to college basketball for the 2023-24 season — for both the men’s and women’s games.
On Thursday, the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved several new rule changes for men’s and women’s college basketball that will go into effect this coming season. The most notable modification made will come on the men’s side as the infamous block/charge call is finally being tweaked after it was initially proposed as a new change in early May.
According to the NCAA, under the new block/charge rule, “a defender will have to be in position to draw a charge at the time an offensive player plants a foot to go airborne to attempt a field goal. If the defender arrives after the offensive player plants a foot to launch toward the basket, officials will be instructed to call a block when contact occurs between the two players.”
The old rule stated that defenders were required to be in position to draw a charge before the offensive player went airborne. This new ruling makes it so that a defender must be in said position even earlier, which will hopefully give the offensive player more freedom when attacking the basket and officials more time to make the call.
In short, if a defender sets into his position after the offensive player plants his foot to go airborne, a block will be called. Ideally, this will reduce the number of charges called in men’s college basketball games, which has been a negative talking point for years now.
That wasn’t the only rule change made to men’s college basketball though. Other modifications include the ability to review goaltending/basket interference calls during the following media timeouts (as long as the official calls it on the floor), players now being able to wear jersey numbers 0-99 (also applicable for the women’s game), and teams being charged with a timeout if the coach requests an out-of-bounds play to be reviewed with under two minutes that is not ultimately overturned, among other items.
Additionally, a couple of experimental rule changes have been approved for the ’23-24 season, with the most notable one being the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) widening the lane from 12 feet to 16 feet, which is the current width of NBA courts.
As for the women’s side, the NCAA’s biggest rule change for this coming season revolves around flopping. If a player is perceived to have been caught flopping by an official, they will receive a warning on the first offense and a technical foul on any subsequent infraction.
Flopping has been a major point of emphasis across all levels of basketball and this new rule hopes to curb some of that from happening even more in the women’s game. Also, as another rule tweak, certain delay-of-game technical fouls will no longer count towards a player’s foul count, instead going to the team.
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