2023-2024 Rules Changes Announced.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

... doubt it would be an issue after.

I'm sure that that's true for your two states.

From your posts in this thread it appears that such multicolored shorts just don't occur in your games, and/or your state associations (or officials organizations, or individual officials), in the past, have redundantly allowed you to be tolerant to allow kids to play.

But it's as big country, and the NFHS has a wide umbrella.

If indeed "like color" means the same color, or a similar color, we will have at least three, or four, teams in our local area of about seventy schools that will have a "real" varsity problem with the new rule.

Originally Posted by JRutledge

And I bet each state will have its own interpretation anyway.

Agree. Maybe not every state, but many states.

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Pretty sure that our CIAC will have to make some exceptions until everybody goes through a new uniform cycle (or maybe beyond).

Originally Posted by BillyMac

I can foresee some state associations making exceptions to this new rule, especially for subvarsity games. And if they don't, I can see some officials organizations making exceptions to this new rule for the middle schools that they service, as my local board already does regarding some uniform and equipment rules in middle school games, for example, illegal numbers.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

I'm sure that that's true for your two states.

From your posts in this thread it appears that such multicolored shorts just don't occur in your games, and/or your state associations (or officials organizations, or individual officials), in the past, have redundantly allowed you to be tolerant to allow kids to play.

You seem to take things so literally here, that it can be unnerving at times. For one never said there were no multi-color pants like one player wearing all-black pants and another player wearing all-white. That is not something I see. If the school colors are green, I might see one kid that has mostly green and white and another player might have mostly white with green trim or highlights on the pants. So the colors are "like" but they are not the same.

Before we would not have batted an eye and in this current rule we would not bat an eye either. Unless they say that mostly white pant has to involve a different style that is mostly white, then we are not doing something different. Or let us say that a visiting team has mostly green as their school color but they have a mostly grey jersey and pants style for that level, and a kid moving up has green and white. I am probably not changing what we are doing. For you, this seems to be a struggle.

Originally Posted by BillyMac

But it's as big country, and the NFHS has a wide umbrella.

Honestly I do not care what they do all over the country. I do not have to answer to states that I never work in or how they interpret the rules.

Originally Posted by BillyMac

If indeed "like color" means the same color, or a similar color, we will have at least three, or four, teams in our local area of about seventy schools that will have a "real" varsity problem with the new rule.

It does not say that, so I am not going to start assuming that is what they mean. Again they might clearly state this issue in the PowerPoint and in some case plays to address this change. When they do I will worry about it, but again I feel this is really much to do about nothing.

Peace

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

If the school colors are green, I might see one kid that has mostly green and white and another player might have mostly white with green trim or highlights on the pants. So the colors are "like" but they are not the same.

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Again they might clearly state this issue in the PowerPoint and in some case plays to address this change. When they do I will worry about it, but again I feel this is really much to do about nothing.

Agree. "Like color" is very odd rule language.

Originally Posted by BillyMac

... not appearing anywhere else in the rulebook, casebook, or annual interpretations, but it has to mean something, something that has to do with colors.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Agree. "Like color" is very odd language.

As I said, this is what they were doing already. I said I had only one case in my entire career where a team had a player were black pants when the rest of the team was white. And that player had black shorts with white trim. So was he not using "like colors" as the current situation?

Peace

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

... a team had a player wearing black pants when the rest of the team was white. And that player had black shorts with white trim. So was he not using "like colors" as the current situation?

Great question, and hard to answer without a NFHS definition of "like color".

Easier to answer if that player's black shorts didn't have any white trim?

Without a NFHS interpretation, I'm not betting anything more than five dollars on my answer.

What is the purpose and intent of this new rule?

Is it to allow officials to easily identify players on each team during fast paced action?

Or is to protect the integrity of high school basketball games, to prevent high school games from devolving into something like the "Wild West" or "circus" atmosphere often seen at weekly fourth grade recreation league practices in local elementary school gyms?

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Great question, and hard to answer without a NFHS definition of "like color".

Easier to answer if that player's black shorts didn't have any white trim?

Without a NFHS interpretation, I'm not betting anything more than five dollars on my answer.

Unless the NF comes out with multiple examples like they did with the hair adornments, I am going to do what we did before.

Peace

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Unless the NF comes out with multiple examples like they did with the hair adornments ...

The NFHS certainly can't allow the new shorts rule language to "stand alone" as it now exists.