Posted 01/23/17, 8:09 PM

DALLAS (AM News Net)  –  Three new experimental rules for the 2017 softball season have been put in place Monday after approval from the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel. Only autonomy conferences will have to play by the rules this year.

The conference games for the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC will feature a restriction on the number of charged conferences, "either offensive or defensive, to six per team." Teams may use two only per inning. For extra innings, only one conference is permitted. Before the change, teams were given two per inning for a total of 14.

Any team member, including players, who call for an extra conference will be ejected immediately.

Further, teams on defense may not huddle at the pitcher's mound after an out. A single violation of this will incur a warning. Subsequent team violations will cause a ball to be given to the upcoming batter.

Lastly, a 90 second time limit between innings will be put in place. There was no time limit at all before this change.

"When the last defensive player crosses the foul line closest to her dugout, the third base umpire, or base umpire in a two-person crew, will start the time using a stopwatch," an NCAA release said.

The third new rule announces defensive teams not ready in the 90 seconds will cause a ball to be given to the batter.

Conferences using these rules are "required" to gather data during the games and send the data to the Softball Rules Committee for a yearly review in June.

Due to opposition, the rules will not be used in postseason play.

The full release can be read here.

More college sports coverage from AM News Net can be found here.

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