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The NCAA rules committee has proposed a solution to the ‘feigned injuries’ trend that caught fire in 2024, particularly in the SEC.
In an apparent attempt to slow the momentum of opposing offenses, defensive players would frequently fake injuries in order to stop play without costing their team a timeout. While this tactic has been used off-and-on for years, the frequency seemed to increase significantly in 2024.
South Carolina coach Shane Beamer was amongst those who publicly commented on the trend during the middle of last season. It even reached a point that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sent out a memo to teams demanding that they stop the tactic mid-season.
Now, Sankey and Co. are likely to get some help from the NCAA when enforcing this issue. Here’s a summary of the new proposal from the NCAA:
Committee members, who met in Indianapolis this week, recommended that if medical personnel enter the field to evaluate an injured player after the ball is spotted by the officiating crew for the next play, that player’s team would be charged a timeout.
If the team does not have any timeouts remaining, a 5-yard delay-of-game penalty would be assessed.
For this rule to officially go into effect, it would need to be approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel on April 16.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
