NCAA to hand out technical fouls for flopping in games

Flops will be punished in college basketball moving forward, with violators earning technical fouls beginning in the 2022-23 season.

The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel has approved men’s basketball officials to assess Class B technical fouls to “players who fake being fouled,” effective immediately. Should a player flop, one free throw will be awarded to the opposing team. Previously, a warning was issued before a technical was assessed.

The proposal came from the NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee.

Flopping has been defined as an “unsporting act that occurs when a player attempts to influence an official’s judgment by creating an appearance that a foul has been committed when there has been incidental or no contact.” Officials will be asked to judge whether a violator’s physical reaction to the contact with another player is consistent with what would have been expected, given the force of the contact. Should a player exaggerate the nature of the contact in an attempt to gain an advantage, flopping has occurred and a technical will be assessed.

A similar proposal was shot down last year following concerns that the removal of flop warnings would “not have the desired effect.” This time around, though, the Division I Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee and the Division I Men’s Basketball Competition Committee said players faking foul calls is worthy of an immediate technical.

John Fulkerson and Jaylin Williams got out of college at the perfect time.

Elsewhere, the panel also made a few other changes, namely with technology use on the bench and media timeouts.

Starting this season, conferences will allow teams to view live video and preloaded video on their bench if the conference submits a waiver request. Conferences will decide on what technology can be used. The rule will also be allowed in multi-team events and the 2023 NIT.

Conferences as well as the NIT will also be allowed to experiment with the use of five media timeouts on the first dead-ball situations under the 17-minute, 14-minute, 11-minute, 8-minute and 4-minute marks of the second half. This is expected to help the flow of the game so commercial breaks will not be taken when teams use their allotted timeouts.

What do you think of the new rule changes? Fair?