Starting with the 2023-2024 school year, one-and-one free throws will no longer be part of high school basketball in the United States.
According to a release posted last week on the National Federation of State High School Associations website, the basketball rules committee approved changes to the “bonus” rules at its annual meeting last month.
“The recommendations were subsequently approved by the NFHS Board of Directors,” the release said.
Teams will now shoot two free throws for common fouls when in the bonus, and will reach the bonus when their opponent commits five fouls in a quarter. Team fouls will reset each quarter instead of each half.
Previously, teams shot one-and-one free throws when their opponents committed seven fouls in a half, and two free throws when 10 fouls were committed each half.
“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,” Lindsey Atkinson, NFHS Director of Sports and liaison to the basketball rules committee said in the release. “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 high school basketball bonus rules now match the rules used in the NBA, WNBA and NCAA women’s basketball. NCAA men’s college basketball still uses the rules previously used in high school basketball.
OTHER APPROVED CHANGES
•There will now be four designated spots for teams to inbound in the ball after violations, defensive fouls (prior to the bonus) or dead balls that occur with the offensive team in the frontcourt.
The one exception is when the defensive team causes a ball to be out of bounds, the throw-in shall be the spot where the ball went out of bounds.
• There is now an official placement of a shot clock operator at the scorers’ table for states that use a shot clock. Missouri doesn’t use a shot clock.
• Teammates can wear different styles of uniform bottoms, “but they must all be like-colored and adhere to uniform rules outlined in Rule 3-6-2 regarding logos and trademarks.”
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.”
According to the 2021-22 NFHS High School Athletics Participation Survey, basketball is the third-most popular high school sport for boys with 521,616 participants in 18,428 schools nationwide. It is the fourth-most popular girls sport with 370,466 participants in 17,901 schools.