Rules don’t break. They get expensive. For decades, college basketball enforced a curious rule: jersey numbers could only use digits zero through five. The explanation was technical. Referees reported fouls using hand signals, and each digit had to be shown on one hand. The rule made sense once. Then technology changed. Scorekeeping improved. The original reason faded. The rule stayed anyway. That’s how most rules survive—not because they’re especially good, but because they’