Referee's Guide to NFHS High School Basketball (Grades 9-12) 2026-27

Each state association adopts the NFHS rules and can modify them. Options the NFHS rules book itself leaves to the state include:

• Shot clock: a state may adopt a 35-second shot clock. Without state adoption, there is no shot clock.
• Closely guarded: a state that uses the 35-second shot clock may eliminate the five-second closely guarded count while a player is dribbling (Rule 9-10-1a Note). The five-second count for a player holding the ball still applies everywhere.
• Coaching box: the size is a state option, up to a maximum of 28 feet.
• Who clears a concussed player: the state decides who counts as an "appropriate health care professional."

States also set things outside the playing rules, such as ejection reporting, suspensions and officials' registration. If your state publishes its own modifications for the season, they override the NFHS default for games in that state.

Jurisdiction begins when the officials are on the court 15 minutes before the scheduled start, and you should stay on the court for the whole pregame.

At the table, the referee:

• designates the official scorebook and the official scorer (Rule 2-4-3)
• designates the official timepiece and its operator (Rule 2-4-2)

Confirm with the scorer:

• Each team's roster and numbers, and the starting lineups, were supplied 10 minutes before the scheduled start. The scorer tells you if either was late or changed after that, and about any discrepancy before the ball is tossed.
• The scorer has the scorebook, possession arrow and a signaling device that sounds different from the timer's.
• The scorer knows to notify you of a player's fifth foul, technicals on players and the head coach, the bonus, and teams running out of timeouts.

Confirm with the timer:

• The game starting time, and that the timer knows your signals for starting and stopping the clock.
• The timer will sound a warning 15 seconds before the end of each intermission, timeout and replacement interval.

The scorer's seat must be marked with an "x" (Rule 1-17), and it is recommended that the scorer and timer sit next to each other.

For high school teams:

• Overtime is played without changing baskets, and as many extra periods as needed are played until the tie is broken.
• Extra periods are an extension of the fourth quarter (so fourth-quarter team fouls carry over).
• For teams younger than high school age, quarters are 6 minutes. Non-varsity overtime is half the length of a regulation quarter.

The official scorebook governs. In any controversy, the record in the official scorebook is accepted unless you (the referee) have knowledge that lets you rule otherwise.

How it should play out:

1. The scorers verify the scoreboard throughout the game and keep the running score, so a mismatch should be caught quickly.
2. When there's a score dispute, the scorer signals at the first dead ball and you come to the table.
3. Compare the official book with the running score. If there are other (non-official) scorers, they must compare their records with the official scorer (Rule 2-11-11).
4. Correct the scoreboard to match the official book, unless you have direct knowledge of the play that shows the book is wrong.

No timeout is charged when a scoring, timing or alternating-possession mistake is prevented or fixed. The official scorebook must stay at the table, available to you, until you approve the final score.

There is no one-and-one in NFHS basketball (removed in 2023-24).

• From the opponent's fifth team foul in each quarter, every common foul gets two free throws.
• The bonus does not apply to player-control or team-control fouls.
• Team fouls reset at the end of the first, second and third quarters. Fourth-quarter fouls carry into overtime, because extra periods are an extension of the fourth quarter.
• Personal, technical and intentional fouls all count toward the team-foul total.
• The scorer notifies the nearer official when a team reaches the bonus, and displays the bonus indicator after the penalty for the opponent's fourth team foul has been administered.

• These limits apply to all team members and bench personnel.
• Personal, technical and intentional fouls all count toward the player's total, the team-foul total and disqualification.
• The team has a 15-second replacement interval to send in a substitute for a disqualified, ejected or injured player. The timer signals when it expires.
• If a disqualified player comes back into the game, it is a direct technical foul on the head coach.

Direct vs. indirect technicals

• Direct: charged to the head coach for the coach's own behavior.
• Indirect: charged to the head coach when a technical foul is called on bench personnel.

Coaching box

• Its size is a state association option, up to a maximum of 28 feet.
• The head coach loses the coaching box for the rest of the game after any direct or indirect technical foul, and must stay seated (with the usual exceptions, such as requesting a timeout).

Ejection
The head coach is ejected on:

• the second direct technical foul, or
• the third technical foul in any combination of direct and indirect.

Administrative warnings may be issued instead of a technical for non-major conduct: minor coaching-box violations, disrespectfully addressing an official, trying to influence an official's decision, inciting undesirable crowd reactions, entering the court without permission, or standing at the team bench.

Since 2025-26, once you signal a timeout the players in the game count as bench personnel, so you can penalize their unsporting conduct during the timeout as bench technicals.

Both use a team warning first, then a technical foul.

Faking being fouled (Rules 4-49, 10-4-6f)

• First offense by a team: a team warning, which the scorer records in the book.
• Any later fake by that team: a team technical foul (not a player technical).
• Faking being fouled was an NFHS point of emphasis again in 2025-26.

Delay of game

• A team gets one warning for any of the four delay-of-game situations in the rules. After that warning, a delay by that team in any of the four is a technical foul.
• Since 2024-25, failing to pass the ball immediately to the nearest official after a whistle (Rule 4-47-5) is also a warning for the first violation, and a team technical foul for later violations.

The scorer records each warning, so check with the table if you're unsure whether a team has already been warned.

• A player or the head coach may request a timeout. During live play it is granted only to the team in control of the ball.
• A timeout can end early if both teams are ready to play.
• The timer sounds a warning signal 15 seconds before a timeout (60 or 30 seconds) ends.
• During a timeout of 30 seconds or less, non-playing personnel may not come onto the playing area.
• An excess timeout (beyond the team's allotment) is a technical foul. The scorer tells you when a team has used all its timeouts.
• No timeout is charged when you grant a player's request for displaced eyeglasses or lenses, or when a correctable error, or a timing, scoring or alternating-possession mistake, is prevented or fixed.

These changed in 2025-26 and still apply in 2026-27.

Goaltending (Rule 4-22)

• Only the defense can commit goaltending. The offensive team can no longer be called for it, so you don't have to judge whether a ball in flight was a shot or a pass.
• Goaltending is touching a try or tap during its downward flight while it is entirely above the ring and has a chance to go in.
• New 4-22-3: once a try touches the backboard, it is treated as being on its downward flight. Touching it after it hits the board, while any part of the ball is above the ring and it can still go in, is goaltending.

Basket interference (Rule 4-6)

• Slapping or striking the backboard so the backboard or basket vibrates while the ball is on or in the basket, touching the backboard, or in the cylinder is basket interference (it used to be a technical foul).
• Touching only the net while the ball is on or in the basket is not basket interference unless the contact affects the try.

Backboard contact technical (Rule 10-4-4b)
Illegal contact with the backboard or ring that gains an unfair advantage or interferes with a try is a technical foul. You no longer have to judge the player's intent.

Injured player (Rule 3-3-6)
An injured player must leave the game if you beckon the coach (or athletic trainer) onto the court, or if the coach or trainer comes on without being beckoned. The coach can keep the player in by using a timeout to assess the injury.

Blood (Rule 3-3-7)
A player with minor blood has 20 seconds to get it stopped and covered (and the uniform cleaned) without leaving the game. If it isn't handled in 20 seconds, the head coach must either call a timeout or substitute for the player.

Concussion (Rules 2-8-5 and 3-3-8)
You must immediately remove any player who shows signs, symptoms or behaviors consistent with a concussion. The player can't return until cleared by an appropriate health care professional. Your state association decides who counts as an appropriate health care professional. You don't diagnose: you remove the player and tell the coach.

NFHS playing rules decide who is disqualified or ejected during the game. Reporting it afterward, and any suspension that follows, is set by your state association, not the NFHS rules book, so the process varies by state.

For example, Ohio's (OHSAA) ejection policy works like this:

• The official who made the ejection contacts the athletic director or principal of the violator's school.
• The official files an online ejection report with the state association, which copies the school.
• The school must respond with its side of the events.
• Ejections are final and can't be appealed.
• An ejected player sits out until 2 contests at the level of the ejection are completed. An ejected coach must also leave the facility, pay a fine and complete the NFHS "Teaching and Modeling Behavior" course.

Whatever your state's process, write down the details while they are fresh: who, what, when (score and time on the clock) and what was said or done.