Syracuse men’s basketball: the Orange will be playing next season with new rules in effect

What’s the over/under on finger twirls you’ll be seeing in 2025-26?

One thing is certain for Syracuse Orange men’s basketball fans next season: the games are going to look slightly different.

The NCAA’s Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved several changes to men’s college basketball, most notably getting some inspiration from the NBA playbook by introducing a coach’s challenge.

The addition of the coach’s challenge and the rest of the changes will be implemented for the upcoming 2025-26 season. The NCAA says these changes aim to “enhance” the flow of games.

As part of the new rules, coach Adrian Autry can now challenge the following plays at any point during a game:

• Out-of-bounds calls
• Basket interference/goaltending
• Whether a secondary defender was in the restricted-area arc.

Similar to how it works in the NBA, Autry (or some other coach) must have at least one timeout available to initiate a challenge.

If the challenge is successful, teams will have one additional challenge to use during the remaining portion of the game, including overtime. If the challenge is not a success, teams will not be able to challenge the rest of the way, and lose the timeout.

With these new changes in place, there’s a couple important details to mention.

Per the NCAA, referees can still initiate a review for relating to basket interference/goaltending and restricted arc plays in a game’s final two minutes and in overtime. The NCAA says “recent data shows these reviews caused minimal game interruptions.”

It’s also confirmed that the new challenge system will not impact a referees’ decision to voluntary review certain plays, including “timing mistakes, scoring errors, shot clock violations, 2-point versus 3-point field goal attempts, flagrant fouls, etc.” Out-of-bounds calls cannot be reviewed by referees unless a coach challenge’s the play, according to the NCAA.

Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Addition of the challenge aside, there’s a few more significant changes coming to men’s college hoops. The notable ones:

• A modification to the rule on continuous motion on field goal attempts. The NCAA says as part of this change: “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.”
• Referees can now potentially call a Flagrant 1 foul if a player is contacted in the groin by a defender.
• A Flagrant 1 foul would lead to two free throws and the ball for the team that received said foul (writer’s note: before, officials could only call a common foul or upgrade it all the way to a Flagrant 2 foul).
• Basketball interference will be called if a player is deemed to have used the rim to “gain an advantage.”

The NCAA also confirmed the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee did discuss a potential move that would divide the game into quarters instead of halves. There was “positive momentum” behind the move, according to the NCAA, but the committee cited “hurdles” that would make the change difficult. The NCAA cited the current structure of media timeouts as an example.

The committee is recommending the conferences to form a working group and provide feedback on making the change from halves to quarters.

In short, be prepared for plenty of players from Syracuse and the NCAA to be twirling those index fingers this season.