The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) has announced a major change to the way high school basketball games will end.
Starting next season, high school basketball will eliminate one-and-one free throws after teams enter the foul bonus. Instead, there will be an automatic two-free-throw system in place.
Prior to this, teams would enter the one-and-one when the opponent commits seven fouls in a half and only enter the double bonus after 10 fouls were committed during a half.
The updated rule will also put a team in the bonus after five fouls in a quarter and team fouls will reset after each quarter.
These changes were approved by the NFHS Basketball Rules Committee during their April meeting in Indianapolis and were later approved by the NFHS Board of Directors.
“The rules committee studied data that showed higher injury rates on rebounding situations and saw this as an opportunity to reduce opportunities for rough play during rebounds,” said Lindsey Atkinson, NFHS director of sports and liaison to the Basketball Rules Committee. “Additionally, resetting the fouls each quarter will improve game flow and allow teams to adjust their play by not carrying foul totals to quarters two and four.”
The rule change brings high school basketball in line with women’s college basketball, which moved away from the one-and-one system in 2015. Men’s college basketball still uses the one-and-one bonus structure.
[Fox News]
