NCAA to eliminate warnings for flopping, will immediately assess technical foul

The change is now official. College basketball players will no longer receive warnings for flopping.

The NCAA made the announcement Thursday, approving a recommendation from the NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee to make the change. Under the previous rule, players would get a warning before officials called a technical foul for flopping. Changes are effective starting with the 2022-23 men’s and women’s basketball season, the NCAA announced.

If flopping is called, players will now immediately receive a Class B technical, which means officials will only award one free throw instead of two.

The committee made the recommendation last month, just one year after making a similar proposal. However, at that time, concerns rose about the effect an immediate technical would have on the game.

More on the NCAA’s decision to do away with flopping warnings

In a statement when the rules committee made the recommendation, West Virginia coach Bob Huggins — the head of the committee — shared the reason to make the move now.

“We didn’t feel like we were getting the results that we wanted with the warnings,” Huggins stated. “Our goal is to continue to try to get flopping out of the game. The committee believes giving the officials the ability to call a Class B technical foul the first time they see a player faking being fouled, it will be more of a deterrent.”

The NCAA put the flopping rule in place in 2019 and players got one warning before officials called a technical. Former committee chair and Colorado head coach Tad Boyle made his case for officials to ditch the warning in a May 2021 statement.

“After two years of using warnings, we didn’t feel like we were getting the results that we wanted,” Boyle stated at the time. “We are trying to get flopping out of our game. We’re asking the officials to call them when they happen.”