USBC Urethane Ball Rules 2026

Which USBC national tournaments restrict urethane

“Urethane” here means what USBC calls a slow oil-absorbing high-performance ball: a urethane-coverstock ball with a high-performance core and an oil absorption time of 90 minutes or more in USBC’s own test. Entry-level reactive balls and balls with non-high-performance cores are excluded, whatever their coverstock. The restriction has three tiers across USBC’s national events.

League bowling and local or regional tournaments are not on this list because they are not USBC national events: urethane stays legal there unless the organizer adopts the restriction itself.

Collegiate events are split. USBC Collegiate Sectionals carry a full urethane ban, the same as the other no-exceptions events above. Regular-season USBC Collegiate events are not affected.

The 78D hardness requirement

USBC does not call this “Rule 78D”; it is a hardness specification tied to the “slow oil-absorbing coverstock” classification in the Equipment Specifications and Certifications Manual. Every USBC-approved ball must test at 73D hardness or harder on a calibrated Type D durometer, averaged over 10 readings around the ball. Since December 31, 2025, any ball classified as slow oil-absorbing (a 90-minute or longer oil absorption time) must test at 78D or harder to be USBC-approved for sale in the United States at all.

That manufacturing-and-sale cutoff is separate from the national-tournament eligibility rule in the table above: a ball can be 78D and still banned outright at an event like the U.S. Open, and a ball under 78D is still legal for leagues and most local tournaments, since previously approved models stay on the USBC Approved Ball List.

The August 1, 2022 manufacture-date cutoff

Separate from hardness, any slow oil-absorbing high-performance ball manufactured before August 1, 2022 is ineligible for USBC national tournaments no matter how hard it tests. A ball made on or after that date still needs to clear the 78D minimum at events that allow urethane at all.

• Check the manufacture dateThe date your own ball was made, which the manufacturer or your pro shop can confirm from its serial number. Not the model’s release date, and not the date you bought it.
• Check the hardness ratingAsk the manufacturer or your pro shop for the ball’s durometer-D rating, or have it tested with a calibrated Type D durometer.
• Check USBC’s approved listConfirm the model is current on bowl.com’s Approved Ball List before entering a restricted event.

USBC has said it sees no basis for refunds or returns tied to these changes: previously approved balls remain on the approved ball list for leagues and local play even where a national event now excludes them.

The PBA’s own urethane rule

The PBA runs a separate rule from USBC’s. Effective January 6, 2024, every urethane or “urethane-like” ball used at any level of PBA Tour competition, National Tour, Regional, PBA50 Tour, PBA50 Regional Tour and PBA Jr. Tour, must be manufactured at a minimum of 78.0HD. It does not reach recreational league bowling or PBA League Bowler Certification tournaments. The PBA adopted the rule after its own 2023 Hardness Report found urethane and urethane-like balls from more than one brand testing below the minimum hardness in competition and in the lab.

The PBA defines “urethane-like” with its own 45-minute oil-absorption test, a different cutoff from USBC’s 90-minute “slow oil-absorbing” test; they are two organizations’ separate tests, not one number.

Being made at 78D is not the whole test: the PBA’s September 2025 statement allows urethane made at 78D that is “not dropping under 73D after time and/or in use.” For the 2022-23 season the PBA also required every ball used on the National Tour to be manufactured on or after August 1, 2022.

The PBA has not adopted USBC’s 2026 restrictions. In a September 4, 2025 statement, the PBA said “for now and the upcoming 2026 season, all PBA events will continue as is,” continuing to allow urethane manufactured at 78D hardness. The USBC tournament table above does not apply to PBA Tour events.

Checking whether a specific ball is eligible

USBC maintains the official lists, and they update more often than any third-party table can keep pace with, including ours. We are not republishing a list of named ineligible balls on this page, because the list changes and a stale copy is worse than no copy.

• USBC Approved Ball Listbowl.com/approvedballlist, updated weekly. Search by brand or download the current PDF list. Any ball used in USBC-certified competition, apart from house balls, must appear on it.
• National Tournament Ineligible Ball ListsTwo official PDFs, one for balls with no slow oil absorption allowed and one for 78D slow-oil balls, both linked from bowl.com’s equipment specifications and approved/non-approved products page.
• Your pro shop or the manufacturerFor a manufacture date or hardness rating you cannot find yourself.

Questions bowlers ask

Sources and method

Next lesson

Shop urethane bowling balls. Free shipping on US orders.