USBC’s new rules for urethane (slow oil-absorbing high-performance) bowling balls announced Sept. 4 to take effect Jan. 1 contain a mix of complete bans on urethanes, allowing urethanes made at 78D or higher, and no changes — depending on the competition.
USBC has updated the Equipment Specifications Manual to define slow oil-absorbing high-performance balls subject to the 78D rule, and a complete list of ineligible balls for national tournaments is available on BOWL.com. The removal includes all slow oil-absorbing high-performance balls manufactured before Aug. 1, 2022, which will be ineligible for national tournament use regardless of their manufactured hardness.
For USBC college bowling, there will be no changes for the college regular season and sectionals but then a ban for the Intercollegiate Championships.
It was never mentioned in the news release announcing the new rules and the accompanying documents and video, but in a recent podcast on the new rules, USBC Senior Director of Equipment Specifications Tom Frenzel and USBC lane pattern designer Nick Hoagland, a GlenOak High School graduate, said the fact that the 2025-26 college season has started make it unfair to add restrictions on those events.
In contrast, NCAA bowling has opted for a total ban that is effective immediately for the entire 2025-26 season through the NCAA Bowling Championships on April 10-11 at Yorktown Lanes in Parma Heights.
The ban was announced in a memo sent Sept. 26 to NCAA women’s bowling conference commissioners, athletic directors, and head coaches.
The memo states, in part:
“The National Collegiate Bowling Committee voted to make the use of slow oil-absorbing highperformance bowling balls ineligible for NCAA competition for the 2025-26 season. This rules change is effective immediately for all regular season and postseason matches. This decision comes after the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) earlier this month made these balls ineligible for national tournament events. Removing these balls from play allows NCAA women’s bowling to address the competitive fairness and lane pattern integrity USBC seeks to address and ensures consistency in the equipment teams can use in the regular season and championship. This list may evolve throughout the season, and it is each coaches’ responsibility to check this list and remain informed of changes.
NCAA’s list of banned balls is the USBC national tournaments ineligible ball list for no urethane allowed events, which can be found below.
NTCA President Jeff Walsh, the head coach of Niagara University, told 11thframe.com poll results were presented to the NCAA National Women’s Bowling Committee, which presented it to the NCAA, and the bowling committee and the NCAA made the rules decision.
(The NAIA’s regular season events fall under USBC Collegiate, but NAIA could make its own rule for conference championships and its national tournament. The NAIA Executive Committee meets in October and could enact rules changes then.)
USBC admitted in announcing its new rules that tampering with urethanes to make them illegally soft is a significant problem at some levels.
USBC said that it “will take immediate steps to add hardness spot-check testing at national tournaments. These checks will be used primarily for research and data collection while also serving as a tool to identify bowling balls suspected of tampering. Hardness testing reinforces enforcement efforts and helps protect the integrity of competition.”
With a total ban, NCAA bowling no longer will have to worry about any of these issues.