The coin toss stinks. It is my least favorite of our rules adaptations for girls in Iowa. I believe the girls union's official stance is that the coin toss reduces chances for injury and is less time consuming. Not a valid arguement if you ask me. I say go with the jump. As some one said earlier, it is an athletic event.

Plus, the coin toss "crap" in Iowa causes some problems for teams crossing the river. I worked a game in Nebraska just south of the Omaha metro where a team from Iowa came over, and I forgot that they don't jump to start the game, so when their girls came out on the floor for the opening of the game, they asked "who won the toss?" It was a freshman game (of course!). Iowa coach was like, what? You forgot the coin flip? I told him, welcome to Nebraska! My partner looked at me like HUH???? Then coach realized what was going on and started to tell his girls where to line up, and all that. I say everyone should start with the jump and leave it at that!

I'd like to go back to the jump ball for all situations in HS varsity and NCAA games. I liked it when teams would run plays off the jump ball. It's part of the game, and I think it should stay in. JMO

Chuck,
I agree that jumping it on held balls throughout the game would add some excitement but the problem would be those ugly games with 299 jump balls would take even longer than they do now. Plus in Iowa I would get tired of flipping my coin for each jump ball in a girls game. I wouldn't mind seeing at the college level though.

They don't really flip a coin on every held ball, do they?
Hopefully they use the AP arrow. You are kidding, right?

Yes I was kidding, but you never know what adapations they will come up with next year.

So we all know the signal for a "jump/held ball"...what would be the signal for coin flip? Dang...Now I have another signal to worry about!!!

How about two fists in the air. Pick a hand any hand, pick the right one and get the ball! Ha Ha

I got an idea...

Lets flip a coin to see who starts with possession. Then that team can designate a player to flip a coin and call heads or tails to see if they score. If they do, they get 2 points. In either case, then the other team can designate a person to flip a coin to see if they score. We keep an 8 minute running clock. We could add some new fouls and violations like intentionally interfering with a coin flip, or distracting the flipper, and things like that. Those get you a reflip.

We use the possession arrow to determine who starts the next quarter and in the event the flipped coin lands perfectly on its edge like in that Twilight Zone episode.

Do that for 4 quarters and determine a winner. If tied, we do a 4 minute overtime with a flip to see who starts each overtime period.

Or how about this, maybe we just play basketball. Coin flip, what a lame idea.

Clark