Proposals to be reviewed next month on bases, offensive conferences and challenges on called pitches
Addressing technology rules in baseball was a primary theme for the upcoming 2026-27 academic year for the Division I Baseball Rules Subcommittee and the Division II and Division III Baseball Rules Committee.
Both groups met this week and recommended proposals for the 2026-27 academic year. All rules changes must be approved before becoming official.
The Division II and Division III Playing Rules Oversight Panel is scheduled to discuss baseball rules proposals Aug. 11, and the Division I Baseball Oversight Committee is scheduled to do the same Aug. 24.
The technology proposals include giving Division I teams the option, when available, of implementing a system to challenge called balls and strikes that could be used in regular-season and postseason games next year.
This would be an experimental rule in Divisions II and III.
The Southeastern Conference experimented with a challenge system during its conference tournament in May.
Both rules committees also proposed allowing bat sensor technology for in-game data collection to become a permissive rule. Division I teams experimented with this rule the past two seasons.
One area where the Division I rules subcommittee wanted to take a step back is the use of technology used to communicate offensive signals. Division I teams no longer would be allowed to use electronic devices to communicate with their offensive players during a game.
Rules subcommittee members wanted to avoid any situations where a batter could have an advantage due to an electronic communication device before a pitch is thrown.
“As more technology becomes accessible, it is a balance of wanting to advance the game to be as modern as possible,” said Billy O’Conner, chair of the Division I Baseball Rules Subcommittee and coach at Xavier. “But we also want to keep the game as fair as possible and do our best to limit any opportunities where technology can be used for someone to gain an unfair advantage.”
Other rule proposals
- Both committees approved the use of 18-inch square bases for next season at all facilities. The 15-inch base remains the standard for use.
- A double first base would be required for all games.
- Both committees proposed increasing offensive conferences to six, which would allow a batters’ request to reset the action clock. Similar to defensive conferences, a coach would be allowed to be involved in a maximum of three offensive charged conferences plus one additional conference in the event of an extra-inning game.
- In games using video review, teams would be allowed to make a video challenge to see any play that could result in a fair ball call being overturned to foul and any tag play, regardless of the location.
- In Division I only, a 30-second timer would be used between batters, as well as during mound visits and offensive timeouts.
Experimental rules
Conferences in all three divisions could receive approval to experiment with allowing pitchers only two disengagements from the pitcher’s plate per batter. A third disengagement would be considered a balk unless the pickoff attempt results in an out.
Also, pitchers entering a game would be required to face at least three batters, unless the inning ends before three batters could be faced.
