At nearly all levels of basketball, flopping has become part of the game. And the folks who make the rules are trying to stop it.
A year ago, the NCAA announced that men’s college basketball would have an anti-flopping rule, which stated that a player “who fake[s] being fouled” could be assessed with a technical.
Now, a version of that rule is coming to women’s college basketball, effective for the 2023-24 season, after the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved it last week.
If a referee thinks that a player flopped, they’ll be given a warning on the first offense, and a technical foul will be charged to the team if that player flops again.
Here’s what else the new rule says:
Under the new rule, the second and any subsequent flop calls will add to the team foul count but would not count toward a player’s five fouls leading to disqualification.
NCAA Women’s Basketball Rules Committee members think the new rule is needed for the sport after receiving feedback from all three divisions about their concerns regarding flopping.
Flopping hasn’t exactly plagued women’s college basketball in recent years, but it has become more common.
Here are the other new rules included in changes for the upcoming season:
- The restricted-area arc will be reduced from 4 feet in the lane to the area directly underneath the basket.
- Players will be allowed to wear numbers 0-99.
- Schools will no longer have to submit a waiver for players to wear religious headwear, provided it is safe for competition.
- An optional rule will allow for live video to be transmitted to the bench area.
- A new class of technical fouls will be assessed to the team and not an individual offender. Delay-of-game warnings and flopping will fall under this category. (For an example of technical fouls for delay-of-game calls, remember the lame tech Caitlin Clark got in the national championship game?)
- When the shot clock is off at the end of a quarter or overtime, officials will use the game clock to determine when a 10-second backcourt violation has occurred.
- The shot clock will be reset to 20 seconds or the time remaining, whichever is greater, when there is a foul by the non-shooting team, but not against the shooter, during a try in flight that does not strike the rim.
- Officials will be allowed to use replay throughout the entire game for off-ball foul scoring plays; the review would be conducted during the next media timeout or intermission.