NCDA approves assistant coach timeouts and tighter tournament oversight

Assistant coaches can now call timeouts, and larger tournaments need executive board approval before they ever hit the floor. The NCDA also left rankings alone for 2027, keeping the league’s competitive framework intact.

The National Collegiate Dodgeball Association’s July 1 ballot set the rules for the 2026/27 rulebook, select policies and the 2027 executive board, and the biggest in-game change was a modest one. Assistant coaches were added to the list of people who can call timeouts after a 14-10 vote, expanding the 2025 rulebook, which limited that power to coaches, captains and assistant captains. The timeout cap itself did not move. Teams still get two timeouts per half, and each timeout still lasts 30 seconds.

The sharper administrative swing came in tournament oversight. By a 13-11 margin, the league said any event with more than five teams must get executive board approval on its schedule before the tournament is held. That should matter most to the bigger brackets, where a bad schedule can create the kind of mess that spills directly into match play. The board also approved a 19-5 requirement that competition dodgeballs be marked by their teams, a smaller change on paper but one that should cut down on confusion when multiple teams or events are using similar equipment.

The ballot also created a new annual vice president position chosen by the executive board. The job runs for the remainder of the fiscal year, July 1 through June 30, giving the league a slightly more formal chain of command heading into 2027. The NCDA said the updated Rulebook and Constitution will be released before the start of the 2027 season.

What the ballot did not touch may matter just as much. There were no ranking-system proposals for 2027, so the league’s current competitive order stays in place as Michigan State keeps looming over the sport. NCDA said Michigan State won its third national title in four years at Nationals 2026, and the team gave up just three total points across four matches on the way to that crown. The race to host Nationals 2027 is still alive too, with the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and Michigan State remaining. Each school will present at the fall captains meeting, and the final vote is scheduled for September 15.