- If you were picking out a jersey number
for your sport of choice,
what do you think you would go with?
- [Will] I would avoid the obvious selection
and instead go with number 68.
But legally change my last name--
- [Ryan] Okay, I appreciate that.
- to Add-One-To.
- [Ryan] So it would be Will Add-One-To number 68.
- [Will] Yes.
- [Ryan] And your jersey would read Add-
- [Both ] One-To 68.
- [Ryan] Okay, good.
- 69
- I got it, and I'm really glad
we got that out of the way
at the beginning of the episode.
Thank you, I appreciate that.
- Gotta get one in.
- It does also connect to the rule
that we're talking about because the NCAA maybe-
- Ooo, sexy rule.
- Mmmm, not quite. I think they got a little ahead of you.
You cannot use the digits six, seven, eight, or nine
on a college basketball jersey
- Really?
- Under the NCAA, yes.
- In either spot?
- In either the tens or the ones spot.
Anything above 55 is out, and then anything below
that if the second number is six, seven, eight, or nine
it's not available.
- [Will] Interesting.
- You have zero, you have double zero,
a choice of one of the two,
and then 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11,
12, 13, 14, 15, so on.
- But not like 63?
- No 63.
In your lifetime you have never seen
a college basketball jersey with the number
six, seven, eight, or nine on it.
- I'm pretty sure I have, but...
- Name one.
- [Will] 27.
- [Ryan] No.
- [Will] 49.
- [Ryan] Wrong.
- [Will] I'm pretty sure I've seen a 72 though.
- [Ryan] Hmm, incorrect.
- [Will] I'm pretty sure.
- You probably should just take my word for it.
- Well, okay, sure.
- The crazy thing to me is it's actually
in the rule book for the game, so all of the other
rules for the game are included in this.
This is not just like--
- Like the one of how to play basketball
- Right, the standard ones, like how to score a point
and what the floor looks like.
- Need a net.
- It's rule 1, section 22, article 7, clause B.2
and it basically just says,
the following numbers are legal
and then it lists them out.
It doesn't even say don't use these digits
it says you can use zero, zero-zero, one, two.
- Because the rule book was written by a frustrated
parent who was just trying to cut off their young child
from asking follow-ups.
- Right.
- But 27 is in there.
- 27 is not in there, no.
- I'm pretty sure I've seen 27.
- Do you know the numbers and the order that they go in?
- Most of them, yes.
- Okay.
The whole reason the rule exists,
is because when a referee whistles a foul on a player
they flash a hand signal to the scorers table
with that player's number but because you only have
five fingers on each hand
and you need one hand for each digit
of the number,
neither of those digits can be greater then five.
- (Chuckles)
- That is the reason that this rule exists.
So...
- I understand the words.
I understand (laughing) what it means.
- It's a thing where the logic makes sense,
but it also doesn't make sense.
The crazy thing is, the NCAA doesn't know
exactly what the impetus was for this rule.
They know that they enacted it
sometime in the mid 60's,
but they don't have a clear record
of when that exact wording went in to.
So I don't know if there was a specific instance
where this was a problem and they had to make a rule.
- [Will] They don't have logs of the meeting
where they were going through like,
yup, well, the two point shot.
- [Ryan] Mmm-hmm, right.
- [Will] Yup, yup, we'll have free throws.
- [Ryan] Yes very good, very good.
- [Will] And then what about those big numbers?
- [Ryan] Oh my god the numbers!
Anything more then five?
Forget about it!
Look at these!
What am I supposed to do with these?
- Maybe there's just one dunce on the committee
that everyone was like--
- Fine.
- God damn it Gary, whatever you want.
I don't know why but that makes me so mad.
- It's a thing where it doesn't effect the game
but it's also such a non-issue
that it doesn't make sense changing it.
- Sure.
- Because its already in the book
so might as well just leave it.
- Why bother?
- Right.
- [Will] Yeah, it's like the Texas State Constitution
I'm pretty sure still says if a man steals your horse
you can kill them.
- [Ryan] Right.
- Maybe they're not, they don't want to verbalize it
because they don't want the players to know
they've called a foul on them.
- So they don't embarrass anybody?
- Yeah just like, there's so many people
came out to this game.
- Sorry who made that foul?
(both mumbling quietly)
- Number 17.
- It was number 17 but shhh. - Shhh...
- Well, wait, 17?
The NBA doesn't have a problem with this.
They, you can use any number from zero to 99.
- That's where I saw 27.
- You probably saw it in the NBA.
- Okay.
- FIBA had a very similar rule for a long time.
- It makes sense for them though.
In international play I understand you wanted
to rely on fingers for signals.
- There's a little bit less communication
happening because of the language barrier, sure.
Their rule was you can't use one, two, or three
because again, those are reserved for fouls.
But you can have the next twelve digits.
You can have 4-15, for a 12 man roster.
- That a better way to do it instead of being like,
we’re giving you a choice, with extremely limited options.
- Sure.
- [Will] It feels a lot like in Pee Wee football
when there's just a barrel of jerseys
that are just thrown in,
it doesn't matter, QB can be number 40
like, just as long as it fits.
- [Ryan] Yeah, sure.
- The thing I find most fascinating about this
for such a stupid rule,
I think I'm hearing this right
this means that I have never seen,
in college basketball,
six... - Correct.
- Seven... - Right.
- Eight-
- In your lifetime, no.
- Nine.
- Correct.
- 16. - Right.
- Or 17 - Yup.
- 18. - Okay.
- 19. - I think, I'm just gonna-
- 26, 27, 28 even.
- Yep, no you've got it.
- 29, 36.
- It's this way, right?
- 37.
38.
Line?