PORTLAND, Ore. — The WNBA’s attempt to crack down on physical play this season has spurred frustration among some players, coaches and fans in the first week of action.
But league officials believe this is just part of the “feeling out period” that’s inevitable with change.
The first 18 games of the 2026 season have averaged 42.1 foul calls — up from the same period a year ago when the league saw an average of 40.7 foul calls across 14 games. Eleven games have had more than 40 fouls recorded; five exceeded 50.
Head of WNBA officiating Monty McCutchen isn’t entirely surprised by the early returns.
“It would’ve been naive to think that, as rough as the game had gotten over the last three or four years and to have a task force tell us to clean that up, that there wouldn’t be more whistles and that there wouldn’t be an adjustment period,” McCutchen told The Post on Thursday. “I do think there will be a feeling out period for the referees and the coaches.”
The quality of the WNBA’s officiating has been under scrutiny over the past few years. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert vowed to address the problem after it appeared to hit a boiling point toward the end of last season.
Engelbert created a task force this offseason to review how WNBA games are called.
Those conversations didn’t necessarily lead to new guidelines but rather a directive for refs to more strictly enforce the league’s rules. Notably, there’s been an added emphasis on freedom of movement.
“We were very clear with our staff, we’re not chasing a number — there’s not a certain number of fouls that we’re trying to achieve or call in a game,” said Sue Blauch, the WNBA’s head of referee performance and development. “Every game is going to dictate what’s needed to control the physicality in that particular game.”
Some questioned, though, whether there’s been an overcorrection that’s doing more harm to the game’s overall flow than good.
Use the Liberty’s overtime win against the Washington Mystics as an example. The game saw a whopping 58 fouls.
Afterward, Breanna Stewart said it was “insane” the game lasted for 2 hours, 41 minutes.
“I know it’s going to take time,” Stewart said. “But there are calls that are being called that are unnecessary on both sides, and then there’s no flow.”
Jonquel Jones, who fouled out in the fourth quarter, felt the officiating against her in that game was unfair and pleaded for more consistency.
McCutchen said the growing pains felt by the officiating changes are a “process.”
“We’re going to meet with the task force on a regular basis to get their feedback about where we’re at so that we can continue to refine this,” he said. “It’s not a one-time product that is rolled out perfectly from the beginning, that it takes a process and some iterations of feedback, recycling into our work, feedback, recycling into our work to get us to where we want to be.”
The WNBA has made some behind-the-scenes investments to aid in improving officiating.
The league promoted longtime WNBA official Eric Brewton to a WNBA Referee Performance and Development Advisor. He’ll join McCutchen, Blauch and Kurt Walker in supporting the development and performance evaluation and feedback of the league’s referees.
The WNBA also created a portal called the “Referee Engagement Performance System,” which puts all the feedback and notes on referee performances in one place. In prior years, that assessment would be shared in individual emails and was harder to track.
The portal also allows McCutchen and Blauch to share video examples of hard flagrant fouls or good non-calls.
“I think there’s been quite a few investments that we say refereeing to our stakeholders matters, and we want to grow and keep pace within the exponential growth that the ‘W’ is experiencing,” McCutchen said. “And that’s our charge and we’re willing to accept that.”
Head of WNBA League Operations Bethany Donaphin said in a statement provided to The Post that the league is “exploring” the possibility of using the NBA Replay Center in Secaucus, N.J. Right now, not all WNBA arenas are equipped with the proper infrastructure.
“We’re constantly evaluating every aspect of our referee operations program, and a major focus is on how technology can help advance the game and support high-quality officiating,” Donaphin said. “Those discussions are ongoing and we will continue to evaluate future investment opportunities in those areas.”
The WNBA also hopes to one day implement a Last Two Minute Report similar to what the NBA does, though the WNBA doesn’t have the resources in place for that quite yet.
Referees can be some of the most scrutinized people in sports. Mistakes happen, but the goal is to minimize errors.
“Our job is to reduce the amount of specifics that are argued so that we can generally take care of the global as well as not be so over-officious that we choke the game out from its beautifulness,” McCutchen said. “What we’re looking for in that balance and what we want is to create an environment in which aggressive play is rewarded, but rough play is penalized.
“We’re here to roll up our sleeves and get to work and reduce the adversarial nature of trying to problem-solve into one of reiterations of feedback and application.”
