NCAA Approves SEC Automated Ball-Strike Challenges for 2026 Tournament

The NCAA Baseball Rules Committee has approved the Southeastern Conference's request to introduce an automated ball-strike challenge system for every game of the 2026 SEC Tournament, marking an experimental step toward robot umpires in college baseball.

The tournament is scheduled for May 19-24 at the Hoover Met Complex in Hoover, Alabama. The system mirrors Major League Baseball's recently implemented challenge format, allowing teams to contest an umpire's ball or strike call using an automated tracking technology that precisely measures each pitch's location against the batter's individualized strike zone, determined from pregame measurements.

Each team will receive three challenges at the start of a game. A successful challenge, overturning the original call, allows the team to retain it. An unsuccessful one results in its loss. Challenges must be signaled immediately after the pitch by a batter, pitcher or catcher tapping their helmet or cap, and can follow any related play, such as action on runners or checked-swing appeals. In extra innings, teams gain one additional challenge per inning, retainable only within that frame.

Once initiated, the pitch location appears on the...