No more flopping: NFHS releases 12 new basketball rules for 2024-25 season

The National Federation of State High School Associations revealed 12 rule changes for the upcoming 2024-2025 high school basketball season, with an emphasis on discouraging faking a foul (flopping) spearheading the charge.

The NFHS, which determines the rules for most high school sports nationwide, approved 12 changes to current regulations in its Basketball Rules Committee meeting in Indianapolis on April 9-11.

"The committee approved changes addressing a variety of different areas," said Lindsey Atkinson, NFHS Director of Sports. "Maintaining a focus on player safety, fairness, balance and rules that officials can effectively adjudicate continue to be the focus of the committee."

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What is flopping?

The NFHS defines faking as foul, or flopping, as "when a player simulates being fouled or makes theatrical or exaggerated movements when there is no illegal contact."

There are numerous situations in which a player can exaggerate or fake a foul, but some of the most common involve exaggerating contact on shooting or blocking/charge plays.

NFHS fake foul rule changes

The main change for next winter's season comes in how teams are penalized for flopping. Under the previous guidelines, referees could asses a warning if they believed a player was faking a foul. If the act continued, the referee could issue a technical foul to the player.

The approved changes now make the act a team warning and team technical foul that is recorded in the scorebook and reported to the head coach, a move aimed at removing deceptive behavior in high school basketball.

"(The committee) is hoping to get those dishonest acts out of the game," said Billy Strickland, the executive director of the Alaska School Activities Association and chair of the Basketball Rules Committee.

Other NFHS high school basketball rule changes

The board approved 12 total rule changes. Here are some of those rules, according to the NFHS.

• Rule 1-19 clarifies that the use of electronic devices during the game must be limited to recording and tracking stats, reviewing plays or similar contest-related functions. The use of electronic devices for voice or video recording is prohibited.

• Rule 2-11-11 notes that if multiple scorers are at the scorer’s bench, the scorer(s) that is not official is responsible for comparing records with the official scorer, who then would notify a referee immediately of a discrepancy. This allows the official scorer to remain focused on game play and places the responsibility of comparing scoring information on auxiliary scorers.

• Rule 3-3-6 states that if bench personnel are beckoned to attend to an injured player, whether they enter the court or not, the player is subject to removal from the game unless the coach requests a time-out.

• If a player is bleeding or has blood on the uniform, Rule 3-3-7 now allows the player to remain in the game if the issue can be resolved in 20 seconds.

• A new exception to Rule 4-6-1 involving basket interference allows for the net to be contacted and play continue if the official determines the contact to not affect the try for a goal.

• A collection of changes to rules 4-47-5, 10-2-1g and 10-4-5 allows officials to issue a team warning for delay of game when a ball is not immediately passed to an official when a whistle sounds. Any subsequent violations now result in a team technical instead of a player technical.

• Rule 7-1-1 establishes that a player cannot be assisted by a team member or bench personnel outside the boundary line to remain inbounds.

• Pregame violations were addressed in a series of changes in Rule 10. If both teams violate provisions listed in Rules 10-1-1, 10-1-2 and 10-2-7 in equal numbers, the penalties offset, and no free throws are awarded. Additionally, the head coach would not lose the privilege of the coaching box. Similarly, the penalty for dunking or attempting to dunk a dead ball in Rule 10-2-7 no longer requires the coach to lose coaching box privileges and no personal foul is assessed as it is now a team technical and not a bench technical.

A complete listing of the basketball rules changes will be available on the NFHS website at www.nfhs.org. Click on “Activities & Sports” at the top of the home page and select “Basketball.”

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: NFHS bans flopping in high school basketball as 12 new rules are released