No goldfish allowed.

No championship belts, Mardi Gras beads, Halloween masks nor hula skirts.

The NCAA has decreed that softball dugouts will be prop-free this postseason after an outbreak of silly costumes and objects over the last couple of seasons. Teams are being told to leave inflatables and stuffed animals away from the game, or at least to tone it down.

That's just fine with University of Alabama coach Patrick Murphy going into the Tuscaloosa Regional, which starts Friday at Rhoads Stadium.

"I've never allowed it and we've never done it," Murphy said Thursday. "It's kind of a you-take-on-the-personality-of-the-coaches, and all our coaches didn't see the need for it. I think the team was 100 percent in agreement that we didn't need it or we didn't want to do it.

"I'm kind of glad that ruling came down."

Two teams at the Tuscaloosa Regional have at least dabbled with props. When Texas State traveled to Arizona for an early-season tournament, assistant coach Kelly Kretschman – a four-time All-American during her playing days at Alabama – suggested that the Bobcats find something to add some spark. The team adopted a stuffed rally monkey named Clutch and even opened a Twitter account for him.

Texas State didn't go on a winning streak, and the monkey didn't last.

"Things just weren't falling into place," shortstop Kimberlin Naivar said, "so we gave Clutch the boot. We kind of killed him."

That ended the dugout-prop experiment for Texas State.

"Now we're rolling," Naivar said. "We're doing good without him."

Samford's pet fish, Blingy, is at risk with the new rule enforcement. The Bulldogs adopted it going into the final weekend of conference play, when they clinched the Southern Conference, and have kept it in the dugout as a good-luck charm.

"He's a real, live fish," said center fielder Meagan Dowdy. "He sits on top of the water cooler. He made the trip."

He likely won't make it into the dugout. The NCAA's crackdown on props began earlier this week at the Division II national championship tournament, when the University of North Alabama was told to pack up its assortment of colorful props.

The NCAA is citing two rules which haven't been enforced previously in regards to props: one which calls for coaches to make sure players are "legally equipped and properly attired to reflect a positive image of the game," and a code of conduct which calls for coaches and player to "respect the dignity" of the game.

Samford coach Mandy Burford, also a former Alabama player, wants her players engaged from the dugout.

"That doesn't include props or anything like that," she said. "It definitely includes cheering and being loud and being up and being involved in the game."

Diane Ninemire, who has coached Cal since 1988, said the trend hasn't made it to the West Coast.

"It's not that popular in the Pac-12," she said. "You see it a lot in the SEC and on TV. We'll do rally hats and we got some special sunglasses a couple of weeks ago, but other than that you're not going to see the cornflake box or goggles and swimming (gear) and all those kinds of things.

"No, we're here to play softball."

Alabama hasn't been totally immune to the trend. For a game against Georgia, freshman Carolina Hardy paraded around the dugout waving a biscuit as UA rallied from six runs down to win.

Murphy believes in some exceptions.

"It's edible," he said.