[BillyMac]

From Texas Aggie: "The game CAN be an actionless contest"

Texas Aggie: Please check out this Forum thread:

http://forum.officiating.com/showthread.php?t=31728

I remember, previous to 1991, when officials had to know which team was ahead or behind and call out to the team to "Playball" or a technical foul for lack of action would result. I believe that if the defensive team was behind, they had ten seconds to move into a closely guarded situation, which back then would result in a jump ball, not a violation, no alternating possession back then, at the nearest jump ball circle, there were three back then. If the offense was behind, after ten seconds, they had to advance the ball over the old, although we still see it in some older gymnasiums, 28-foot hash mark. In 1982 the warning for lack of action was changed from 10 seconds to 5 seconds.

There are still some NFHS rules that deal with an actionless contest. Please see Rule 10-5 and note the words "similar acts". I'm not sure, but the situation described in the thread that I noted above may fall into the category of being a "similiar act" resulting in an "actionless contest". The noted thread would only occur in a real game with revised rules, in this case not allowing a press, however, a similar question was asked on an IAABO refresher exam a few years ago. Maybe one of our Forum members can recall the situation, the question and the answer from that exam.