NFHS All Access Gone - Enter NFHS Digital App

[johnnyg08]

It appears as though NFHS migrated to the NFHS Digital App. 

I'm unable to access my 2025 Rule & Case Book on the NFHS Digital App (Desktop)

What am I missing? 

 

[NavyBlue]

NFHS website states we will not be able to access books from computers, only from phones and tablets.

[johnnyg08]

1 minute ago, NavyBlue said:

NFHS website states we will not be able to access books from computers, only from phones and tablets.

Wow..that's a HUGE miss from them. 99% of the work I do around the rules & case plays is from my laptop. 

 

[834k3r]

1 hour ago, johnnyg08 said:

It appears as though NFHS migrated to the NFHS Digital App. 

I'm unable to access my 2025 Rule & Case Book on the NFHS Digital App (Desktop)

What am I missing? 

 

[NavyBlue]

This is from the NFHS Digital FAQ page...

[johnnyg08]

7 minutes ago, NavyBlue said:

This is from the NFHS Digital FAQ page...

I don't need it downloaded...I only need access. 

The same was true with 'All Access'...I didn't need to download it...only to be able to access it. 

 

[NavyBlue]

Here's another statement from the website...

[johnnyg08]

6 minutes ago, NavyBlue said:

Here's another statement from the website...

Very, very unfortunate. I now need an extra device simply to look at the rules I have to pay to access. 

Sigh

[Tog Gee]

Yeah what a racket. Kids should be able to get a rules PDF for free.

Not to mention their app was a hassle.

 

[johnnyg08]

I saw somewhere else on the interwebs that a laptop/browser product is in the works. 

I sure hope that's accurate. 

[The Man in Blue]

Don't forget that when you "buy" it from them, you are really only "renting" it from them as you will lose access to past books at the end of the season/term.

But the app is free!  🙄

6 hours ago, Tog Gee said:

Yeah what a racket. Kids should be able to get a rules PDF for free.

Not to mention their app was a hassle.

We at NFHS want to make it as easy as possible for new officials to be able to officiate our games. To help facilitate this, we developed a junk proprietary app that you can use to pay us for the rule book, case book, and officials' manual in each sport you officiate. In order to help you learn how to properly apply and understand our rules, we will allow you to view all of these purchases on a select few types of devices during select periods of time.

Hmm.  Doesn't feel as if they want officials . . . 

Maybe I'm just pissy after some of the passive-aggressive BS in the volleyball supplement I just received.  Nah, nah, NFHS really is just greedy. 

In softball and baseball combined, NFHS is the ONLY major organization still hiding its rules behind a paywall.

NOTE: If you receive books or online access with your annual licensing fees, that is courtesy of your STATE, not NFHS.

As mentioned before, in IL we only get print rule books and case books every other year now.  No online access provided.

[johnnyg08]

1 minute ago, The Man in Blue said:

Don't forget that when you "buy" it from them, you are really only "renting" it from them as you will lose access to past books at the end of the season/term.

But the app is free!  🙄

Yeah...it's sour all around

[Velho]

2 hours ago, The Man in Blue said:

Don't forget that when you "buy" it from them, you are really only "renting

Tangent: Anything you "own" that is not in a physical form that you control when it can be altered is only being rented. John Deere tractor, electronics that can receive firmware updates (that includes a lot of cars btw), anything that has to phone home, the list goes on and on.

[johnnyg08]

9 hours ago, Velho said:

Tangent: Anything you "own" that is not in a physical form that you control when it can be altered is only being rented. John Deere tractor, electronics that can receive firmware updates (that includes a lot of cars btw), anything that has to phone home, the list goes on and on.

Isn't that the truth? 

[dumbdumb]

are we sure there is not some solution that either someone on here, or out there (wherever there is) keeps to themselves and just laughs at us, rather than sharing. can we take the problem to Oz and see the wizard (and no not ozzie smith).

[Velho]

I know of a 2023 PDF that fell off the back truck. Nothing since has hit the pavement though.

[johnnyg08]

4 minutes ago, Velho said:

I know of a 2023 PDF that fell off the back truck. Nothing since has hit the pavement though.

There are a few floating around out there. 

[The Man in Blue]

I know a guy who knows a guy who has a cousin whose hairdresser is best friends with a security guard's girlfriend who knows Taylor Swift's cats' dietician . . . and he says that he found 2,025 copies of the Umpire's Manual and the Case Book, but is still looking for the Rule Book.

My library card is good.

[The Man in Blue]

21 hours ago, Velho said:

Tangent: Anything you "own" that is not in a physical form that you control when it can be altered is only being rented. John Deere tractor, electronics that can receive firmware updates (that includes a lot of cars btw), anything that has to phone home, the list goes on and on.

 

I get what you are saying, but once I have the file, it is pretty well in hand.

What I find to be an added SH*#ty aspect of NFHS's business model on this is that they are not making it readily known that the book will disappear from the app once the new one is out.  I used to buy them on Kindle, and I have several past years still available.  So, if you "bought" 2024, you no longer have access to it in 2025.  

[Velho]

12 minutes ago, The Man in Blue said:

I get what you are saying, but once I have the file, it is pretty well in hand.

Not to belabor the point (ok, I am but then I'll stop) - unless you have a non-DRM file, it's a rental that they grace you with continued usage of.

[The Man in Blue]

I'm an old fart who abhors technology more and more each day, so maybe I don't understand.

Please enlighten me.  Are they going to come pull the file off my hard drive or my thumb drive and burn the printed copies I made?

If you are accessing it on their platform (e.g., Kindle), then yes, they have that ability.

[Velho]

11 minutes ago, The Man in Blue said:

Are they going to come pull the file off my hard drive or my thumb drive

Heavily depends on the file format. .txt file, you're pretty good. Kindle or in-app, like you said, easy peasy for them. PDF, if you generated it yourself, probably good.

At more root level, it would be trivial for an OS to be changed to delete/restrict something (and OS's phone home constantly. Plus it's trivial to stop OS usage if you're not online - ask any "smart device" owner).

Text file in open-sourced OS? You're good to go. Otherwise? Technically possible

11 minutes ago, The Man in Blue said:

burn the printed copies I made?

If you're lucky, they only burn the printouts

[johnnyg08]

The thing about this...is I believe that when you make things harder for the average user, that piracy actually increases. 

[MadMax]

22 hours ago, johnnyg08 said:

The thing about this...is I believe that when you make things harder for the average user, that piracy actually increases. 

There was a hacker asked about this back in the late-late 90s / early 2000s... Y2K time... this guy had been nabbed hacking into some serious spots. During his penance, he was consulted by the Alphabet Soup agencies, and I think he was the source, or at least one of them, of new efforts to "hide (assets) in plain sight". His insight? That the more resources you devote to isolating / protecting / secluding / cordoning-off / warding-off / restricting-access-to an object or system, the amount of interest and efforts people will expend just to discover what it is that you're protecting increases geometrically. And, these efforts and actions will have no regard to damage (collateral or otherwise).

For every foot higher you build a wall, someone will get a ladder just as tall.
For every yard further away you put it from the fence line, someone will get a better lens to peer in with.  
For every access card you limit your quantity (or quality) to, someone will try to clone, copy, or steal one. 

And, he explained, for every dollar you advertise (or boast) about it being (valued at), the amount of efforts (not costs) will be increased reflectively to get at it. 

On 8/5/2025 at 9:05 PM, The Man in Blue said:

So, if you "bought" 2024, you no longer have access to it in 2025. 

But but but... if you bought a 2024, why would you buy a 2025?? More to the point, what compulsion do you have to buy a 2025? 

We get it, we get it, you need to generate revenue somehow so as to "exist". However, it ain't the umpires (or coaches, for that matter) that's the drain on your revenue stream; instead, it's the tournament events & leagues that (flippantly) use your sacrosanct rules on their own for-profit benefits without paying you (the source institution) for it!!! 

[Velho]

17 minutes ago, MadMax said:

We get it, we get it, you need to generate revenue somehow so as to "exist".

I wonder how much revenue comes in from this vs other streams.

NFHS is a non-profit with Net Income of $1.7M off $18M Revenues in 2023. $30M of assets. CEO makes $315k in Indianapolis. Not horrendous (especially compared to LL) but feels like there is a solution to get NFHS umpires the rulebook at a reasonable cost and still have an avenue to charge the for-profits that leverage their rules (or cut to the chase and do a partnership).

NFHS Stated Mission "The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) serves its members by providing leadership for the administration of education-based high school athletics and activities through the writing of playing rules that emphasize health and safety, educational programs that develop leaders, and administrative support to increase opportunities and promote sportsmanship."