INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — The NCAA announced on Tuesday evening that the automated balls-strike (ABS) system will be permitted for use across all collegiate baseball divisions for the 2027 season.
The Division I Baseball Oversight Committee and the Division II and Division III Playing Rules Oversight Panel convened and voted to give teams the option to challenge calls using ABS in regular and postseason games.
MLB began experimenting with ABS in its minor leagues in 2019 and fully integrated the system at the major league level ahead of the 2026 season. Now, the NCAA follows suit.
The decision allows the use of ABS when the technology is available; it will not force programs to implement the technology in their stadiums.
ABS gives pitchers, catchers, and batters the option to challenge a ball/strike shortly after an umpire makes the call. The ruling does not eliminate the home plate umpire or their job to call balls and strikes.
The SEC was the first collegiate conference to experiment with the use of ABS, implementing the system during the 2026 SEC tournament in Hoover. The general consensus following the tournament indicated that ABS was a resounding success, with praise from coaches and players.
Alabama head coach Rob Vaughn spoke on the Southeastern Conference implementing the ABS system ahead of the SEC tournament back in May: “There’s gonna be some kinks to work out, there’s no doubt, just like you see in anything.”
ABS will help reduce mistakes from umpires. “Umpires love the replay,” Vaughn continued back in May. “They say it all the time, it’s about getting the call right, and they want that. So to me, if it eliminates it, I think these umpires do, for most part, an incredible job with the strike zone, especially some of these SEC guys.”
Other new rules across college baseball include: a double first base being required for all games, the number of offensive conferences per game increasing to six, the ability to challenge whether a hit ball landed foul or fair, and a 30-second timer being used between batters, mound visits, and offensive timeouts. The use of 18-inch bases rather than the standard 15 will be permitted, but not required.
Programs and conferences across all three divisions could receive the approval to test allowing pitchers only two disengagements per batter. A third disengagement would be a balk, unless the pickoff attempt results in an out.
Pitchers entering the game will also be required to face at least three batters. The lone exception is if the inning ends before the pitcher faces three batters.
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