What are the qualifications for a legitamate fofeit, according to the rules??

Welcome grcoach,
What ya thinkin' about in particular?
Do you have a situation in mind?
Are you looking for the easiest way to do it? :-)
mick

3-1-1
Each team consists of five players, one of whom is the captain.
NOTE: A team must begin the game with five players, but if it has no substitutes to replace disqualified or injured players, it must continue with fewer than five. When there is only one player participating for a team, the team shall forfeit the game, unless the referee believes that team has an opportunity to win the game.

5-4-1
The referee shall forfeit the game if a team refuses to play after being instructed to do so by any official. The referee may also forfeit a game if any player, team member, bench personnel or coach fails to comply with any technical-foul penalty, or repeatedly commits technical-foul infractions or other acts which make a travesty of the game. If the team to which the game is forfeited is ahead, the score at the time of forfeiture shall stand. If this team is not ahead, the score shall be recorded as 2-0 in its favor.

2-5-4
The referee shall:
May declare the game a forfeit when conditions warrant.

Those are the only rules.

What happened?

No. I kind of ran into a situation last week where my team was just getting it handed to them and the opposing coach continued a full court man to man press with the majority of his starters in the game. There were plenty of deadballs and timeouts called in the fourth quarter, so he had multiple opportunities to sub. I had played my entire bench since about 4:30 left in the third quarter, and he made no effort to reciprocate. So with 4:00 left in the fourth down by 37 points I called it off. I told the referee my team was finished, we lined it up shook hands and went to the locker room.

uhhhhhh.....no, this does not qualify under the rules. It's kinda like when life slaps ya around a bit, ya gotta stick in there & take it until it stops.

Was your team happy to call it quits?

I hope you were not coaching children. Since every game should be a learning experience, what was it you were trying to teach them? I am sure there is something you could have worked on in the last 4 min to prepare them for their next game. At the very least it seems like you ample opportunity to work on breaking the press. The next time one of your players get frustrated with the game and they give up you'll know where the got it from.

The ones on the floor were. They had no chance of even getting the ball across half court , let alone actually getting a shot off. I only had nine players total and one of them is coming off a recent ankle sprain. He only played about 10 total minutes anyway, and another of my starters had fouled out.

I should also add that this is a JV level game and the opposing team had brought down 3 varsity players for this game. Two of them were starters on the varsity.

Like I said, hang in there until it stops.

uhhhhhh.....no, this does not qualify under the rules. It's kinda like when life slaps ya around a bit, ya gotta stick in there & take it until it stops.

Agree, gotta stick it out.

Incidentally, if I'm reffing that game, and one team's full-court pressing with a 40pt lead in the 4th, I'm calling every touch foul in sight until they back off.

As wrong as I believe it is to quit before it's over, I believe more in not running up the score like jerks. Especially after stacking the team with 2-3 varsity starters.

Thanks for the replies guys!! I will take them to heart. Our Administrative board wants to suspend me for one game for breaking rules. I was wondering if you could help me understand what written rule I was breaking.

One of the two in Bktballref's post would cover it...

5-4-1
"The referee shall forfeit the game if a team refuses to play after being instructed to do so by any official....or other acts which make a travesty of the game."

2-5-4
The referee shall:
May declare the game a forfeit when conditions warrant.

I was breaking these rules? I thought they supported the legality of the whole thing?

I think it's kind of lame to suspend you, although there may be rules in your league about who can and cannot pull a team off the court, so to speak. Some leagues forbid the coach from doing this, to prevent teams who are losing badly from simply packing it in (like you did).

If your assc. wanted to be nice about it, they could probably forego a suspension, as it sounds like neither the officials nor the other team had a problem with it. But I believe the rules could be used to technically justify suspending you (for "making a travesty of a game" or something like that).

Normally, if a game is forfeited during play, it is supposed to reflect BADLY on the team that forfeits, no?

Not me. We *all* have to stick it out. Blowouts are part of the deal, call the game without bias until it's over.

I once worked a completely overmatched AAU game, losers didn't get to 30, winners were hell bent on getting to 100. I called the "and one" that got them there.