2024-25 NFHS Rules Changes

[BillyMac]

Schoolhouse Rock, 1973

Originally Posted by bucky

Isn't flopping the same thing as "faking being fouled"?

Originally Posted by JRutledge

The rule talks about FTs, not fouls during a play ... there was a case play that addressed that, never one that addressed a flop or even called anything a flop.

At the risk of wading onto a pool of sharks, I’d like to enter this debate.

JRutledge is 100% correct that the word “flop” is not found anywhere in the current rulebook or casebook, nor do I believe that it was ever found in past rulebooks or casebooks.

Flopping is not a formal rule language term, but an informal colloquial term used by many in the world of basketball.

However, while the old rule did mention free throws, it used the coordinating conjunction “or” which means that any part of the sentence can stand by itself, i.e., only "faking being fouled".

While I agree with bucky that flopping is the same as faking being fouled, I also agree with JRutledge that there is now much more in the rule with the addition of the faking being fouled definition in Rule 4.

The important take away is that the penalty has changed (player technical changed to team warning followed by team technical).

NFHS Previous To 2024-25: 10-4-6-F: Player Technical: A player must not: Commit an unsporting foul. This includes, but is not limited to, acts or conduct such as: Faking being fouled, knowingly attempting a free throw, or accepting a foul to which the player was not entitled.

NFHS 2024-25: 10-2-1g, 10-4-6f: Team Warning, Team Technical: Establishes a procedure for officials to issue a team warning on the first instance of faking being fouled. The warning is recorded in the scorebook and reported to the head coach. Any additional instances will result in a team technical foul.

NFHS 2024-25: 4-49: Faking being fouled as when a player simulates being fouled or makes theatrical or exaggerated movements when there is no illegal contact. Examples include, but are not limited to, embellishing the impact of incidental contact on block/charge plays or field goal attempts, using a “head bob” to simulate illegal contact and using any tactic to create an opinion of being fouled to gain an advantage.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

NFHS Previous To 2024-25: 10-4-6-F: Player Technical: A player must not: Commit an unsporting foul. This includes, but is not limited to, acts or conduct such as: Faking being fouled, knowingly attempting a free throw, or accepting a foul to which the player was not entitled.

Originally Posted by ilyazhito

For some reason, the rules writers conflated "faking being fouled" with other infractions that abuse the foul calling and enforcement process.

Back in high school we were coached to raise our hand (back when it was actually a mandatory rule to raise one's hand when charged with a foul) when we were in the vicinity of our best players being charged with a foul.

It occasionally worked.

And we were never penalized for trying (wink, wink, gamesmanship).

For some reason, nobody ever raised their hand for me.