[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Lah Me

10.4.5 SITUATION A: Post players A1 and B1 begin punching each other and play is stopped. RULING: A1 and B1 are charged with flagrant fouls and are disqualified, but no free throws result from the double PERSONAL flagrant fouls. NFHS rule 4-19-4 says "A flagrant foul may be a personal or technical foul of a violent or savage nature, or a technical non-contact foul which displays unacceptable conduct. If personal it involves, but is not limited to violent contact such as: striking, kicking and kneeing." NFHS rule 4-18-1 FIGHTING says "Fighting is a flagrant act and can occur while the ball is dead or LIVE. Fighting includes but is not limited to combative acts such as an attempt to STRIKE, punch or kick an opponent with a fist, hands, arms, legs or feet regardless of whether contact is made." Flagrant contact while the ball is live = a flagrant personal foul. That includes striking an opponent, which by definition is fighting. How much more definitive do you want the FED to be? And how much more ridiculous can it be for people to claim that TWO case plays are wrong and their own personal vision of the way things ought to be is correct?

Lah Me: You make some great points, and citations here. Thanks for the research, but please don't shout, it's early Sunday morning here on the East coast.

10-3-8 states that it's a player technical to, "Be charged with fighting". Could 10-3-8 only refer to a player who is fighting during a dead ball? If the fight takes place during a dead ball, everything is a technical foul. If, however, a fight takes place during a live ball, then maybe every foul before the official blows the play dead is a personal foul, and every foul that takes place after the official blows the play dead is a technical foul? Am I making this too simplified, or am I missing some major point here?