'Positive momentum' reportedly occurring towards major college basketball rule change

The NCAA Rules Oversight Panel met on Tuesday to discuss new rules and regulations to "enhance the flow of the game in men's basketball." One of the significant changes the committee made was allowing a coach's challenge next season, where a program may challenge a call once during a game, provided it has a timeout. The calls that can be challenged are out-of-bounds calls, basket interference/goaltending, and whether a secondary defender was in the restricted arc.

In addition to coaches having one challenge, if a coach successfully completes a challenge in a game, they will receive an additional challenge to use at any point through the remainder of the game, including overtime.

However, there has reportedly been "positive momentum" towards a new drastic rule change in men's college basketball, changing from halves to quarters

"Last month, the NCAA Men's Basketball Rules Committee proposed the creation of a joint working group to gather feedback for potentially moving from halves to quarters," On3's Alex Byington reported. "Since then, the NCAA revealed there’s been 'positive momentum' toward the move to quarters, and the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel further recommended Division I conferences actually develop a working group to provide further feedback on the option. Men’s college basketball is the only division of the sport that utilizes halves as opposed to quarters. Women’s college basketball has utilized quarters since the 2015-16 season."

This rule change has been in conversations around men's college hoops for several years now, as men's college basketball is the only division of the sport in the United States of America that plays the game with two halves instead of four quarters.

The 2025 offseason has been a whirlwind for the NCAA thus far. First, dealing with the House settlement that now allows colleges to directly pay their athletes, to now some pretty significant rule changes coming to the game itself, and more potentially on the way.

Men's college hoops switching from two halves to four quarters would probably take some getting used to from the sport's biggest fans, and how it actually affects the style in-game is yet to be seen, but odds are this is a change that will be made sooner rather than later by the NCAA.