NCAA Approves Changes To Women’s Review System And More

The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel has approved a number of rules changes for the 2018 season, including challenge rules, libero jerseys and intermission. These rule changes were proposed a month ago and were designed with the idea to make the game run more efficiently for the coming season.

Under the previous challenge rules, coaches could use a challenge on an in/out and touch call, but they had to be specific as to which they were looking for. If a coach called for an in/out challenge and they were wrong but it was found that there was a touch on the play the call could not be overturned because of the specifics of the rule. Now, with the rule change, a coach can use a challenge for broadly and a fault or change in point can be determined by both from one challenge. The panel also approved allowing coaches to challenge three-meter line attacking faults next season.

The challenge review system has been in effect for the past two seasons, with the in/out and touch calls being the most frequently used. In 2017, the average time to review a play was 1 minute, 30 seconds.

These challenge rules have come into place to help out officials, as the increasing athleticism of players can make it difficult to make the right call in certain situations.

Continuing on the challenge system, for the 2018 season, coaches will be able to use an additional challenge if a match goes to a fifth set. A carryover rule is also in place for coaches that don’t use their allotted challenges in the first four sets, allowing for more review in the crucial set of the match.

For libero jerseys, the jersey must be immediately recognizable from all angles as a clearly contrasting color from the rest of the team. Intermission was also a factor in the rule change, as the small break in between the second and third sets used to be 10 minutes has been shortened to 5 minutes. This change is in the hopes of speeding the game up.