2023-2024 Rules Changes Announced.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

Actually, I believe it did change.

Before, aside from logo restrictions, there were zero rules on the shorts. One player could have worn red shorts with another wearing black and another wearing yellow...and all would have been legal. It rarely happened but it would on occasion. I've seen it and, as State Rules Interpreter, have had the question brought to my by officials that saw it one of their games and wondered what they should have done (nothing).

Now, they must at least be similar in color.

That is the rub, what is "like-colored"? That does not mean the same for sure. Does that mean that if I have red and white (as in the Globetrotter picture) could I have red mostly on one and some white or could on another pair we have mostly white with smaller red? I say that it really did not change much because we never nitpicked that kind of stuff and I was using the example of a JV kid coming up to play the varsity and the JV kid has the old jerseys so that they have a different style of pants, but they are the same basic colors. And usually, that JV kid was not a key player so it was almost never something you noticed outside of the warmups.

Only once in my career did a kid have a completely different color pant than the jersey that clearly did not go with the school's uniform. It was a poorer school too, so something tells me this player did not have other uniforms that fit him and he played with his own stuff. And if that happened, it would be very hard-pressed to penalize this team with anything because that took place. Never seen that since and usually, this is not much of an issue other than a lower-level player playing with a higher-level team.

Peace