A Review of the NCAA Pitching Rule Changes with Texas Head Coach Mike White

Texas head coach Mike White knows a thing or two about pitching.

In football, pundits say that defense travels. In softball, pitching travels. And, arguably, no one has done that better than White.

Recognized as one of the top men’s fastpitch hurlers in the world during his playing days, his teams at Oregon and Texas have featured many of the top pitchers in the game.

Six different pitchers earned 11 All-America citations under his leadership including Cheridan Hawkins, Miranda Elish and Hailey Dolcini. Strength in the circle has resulted in White leading six teams to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, Okla.

When the NCAA announced rules changes for the 2024 season involving pitching, Extra Inning Softball knew there was no one better to discuss how the new rules would impact the game than White.

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In August the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved two rule changes for the upcoming 2024 season.

Step/Stride

To allow pitchers to disengage from the playing surface during the delivery. The pitcher’s pivot foot could become airborne with one push from the pitcher’s plate. However, pitchers would not be allowed to replant their pivot foot resulting in pushing off from a second point and the pitcher being farther away from the pitcher’s plate.

Time Allowed Between Pitches

To change the time between pitches from 25 seconds to 20 seconds. The time begins when the pitcher receives the ball or the umpire calls, “Play ball.” The pitcher must begin their windup before the time expires or a ball will be awarded to the batter.

White views the rule change allowing pitchers to disengage as an opportunity for freedom in the circle.

“It’s not going to be a career rule. In other words, it’s going to work for some, but not all. Some pitchers will have better success keeping closer to the ground and dragging, and some will be able to leap. It won’t be disadvantageous to any one pitcher and allows pitchers to be themselves.”

White also sees a clear advantage for instruction for younger pitchers and for pitchers who eventually move on to international competition.

“It also streamlines the teaching from the younger age groups. If we have a coach that wants to try and teach a kid to pitch like so-and-so that’s playing at the D1 level right now and she leaps, then we can do that. In the past, you wouldn’t be able to teach that because technically it was illegal. But now we just teach them the best way and whatever works best for that player. It also streamlines everything to be in line with all the softball codes. The highest level of the game is the Olympic level, USA team level, international, or WBSC level and we’re in line with those codes.”

White sees a benefit for the umpires and how they call the games as well.

“The other great benefit is it’s going to be a lot easier for the umpires. They don’t want to feel like they’re influencing the game. If they don’t call an illegal pitch, they’re getting admonished by one side and if they do call it, they’re being admonished by the other side. Now we can just get out there and play the game.”

Softball pitchers can disengage from the playing surface while delivering a pitch next season:https://t.co/cPJE6lsKAi

— NCAA News (@NCAA_PR) August 10, 2023

The shortening of the pitching clock will be advantageous regarding pace of play in the opinion of White.

“I think we’ve seen the positives from baseball doing it and what’s happened there. We’re getting a push from ESPN to keep our games within a two-hour window, which is difficult, but if we can speed up the game and keep those windows tighter it’s going to help us. And that’s what we want to do. And I think if we just take a page out of baseball’s book and how it worked there, it should have a similar effect with us.”

White views the two rule implementations as improvements in the game of softball.

“Some of the rules in the past, have clamped down the pitchers a little bit. We loosened up the one foot back, which has helped a lot of pitchers and we saw that last year. That really helped a lot, especially for the taller pitchers. And I think this is another step in the right direction. We’re going to give the pitchers a little more ability to get better and produce better results.”

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