WNBA’s Officiating Changes Already Drawing Complaints

The WNBA is trying to fix its officiating problem, but there have been clear growing pains through the first weekend of the season.

After several years of officiating complaints across the league, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert created a task force in the offseason that included players and coaches to try to address the issue. Several coaches said that a tighter whistle was expected coming out of the meetings.

Less than a week in, there has already been a marked increase in the number of foul calls and free throw attempts. Through the first 11 games of the season, WNBA teams are averaging 22.3 fouls and 23.1 free throws per game—up from 17.5 and 18.2, respectively, last year. There have already been five instances where a team has had at least 25 free throw attempts this year, compared to 25 for all of last season.

Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White—who was involved in the task force—has been patient about the increased foul volume, saying the league needs to “overcorrect” from past years when the primary complaints were from missed calls.

“We have asked, in all of our offseason, have asked officials to call everything,” White said Saturday after the Fever’s loss to the Dallas Wings. “The challenge, and the question sometimes: Is it consistent? So that’d be the next growth phase and growth area. But this is what we need to clean up some of the stuff that we saw last year. So there is going to be frustration early, but it’s necessary.”

But Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, who was handed the largest fine in league history after ranting about officiating during the 2025 playoffs, already called out officiating issues after the her team’s opener on Saturday, which featured a 42 fouls and 52 free throws.

“What I’m confused about, being on the task force, we talked about unnecessary physicality. We didn’t say we want to call marginal fouls. We never brought that up,” said Reeve, who was also involved in the task force. “It takes a little bit of time for sure to calibrate, both them and us. … Obviously, we’ll continue to work with the league on getting right because we’re not the only team sitting here wondering why everything is a foul.”