The SEC has had enough with players falling and feigning injuries to get clock stoppages.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey sent a letter to league coaches and athletic directors, telling teams to “stop any and all activity related to faking injuries to create timeouts.” Yahoo Sports first reported the letter.
“Play football and stop the feigned injury nonsense,” Sankey wrote.
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The SEC adjusted the rules of how they govern feigned injuries, giving them more power to punish teams and altering their review process.
Before the rule adjustment, teams had to send video to the national coordinator for review. Now, the SEC office can request a video review if warranted.
For a team’s first finding of a feigned injury, the head coach will receive a public reprimand, and a financial penalty of $50,000 will be assessed.
For a team’s second finding of a feigned injury, the head coach will receive a public reprimand, and a financial penalty of $100,000 will be assessed.
For a team’s third finding of a feigned injury and any subsequent findings, the head coach will receive a public reprimand and a suspension for the team’s next contest.
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If any other staff member is found to have been involved in signaling, encouraging or directing a feigned injury, that individual will be subject to the same accountability measures presented in this memorandum, including public reprimand, financial penalties and suspensions.
If a student-athlete is cited for a feigned injury, they also may be subject to a public reprimand.
A feigned injury finding can be cleared if medical information is presented that establishes a player had to disrupt the game for an injury.
“When defending against a ‘hurry up’ offense, you are to use the allocated team timeouts if you need to stop play, or you may allow the play to continue with the personnel and defensive play call in place,” Sankey wrote. “When on offense, if the play clock is running out, you are to use a team timeout or accept the delay of game penalty.
“Creating injury timeouts in these circumstances is not acceptable and is disrespectful to the game of college football.”
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The rule changes follow controversy surrounding Ole Miss players feigning injuries, where the team actually released a statement about the issue.
“Feigned injuries has become a notable topic in college football, and we realize our program has been part of that discussion. We have been in communication with the National Coordinator for Football Officiating and provided relevant medical information for his review to answer questions about recent injuries,” the statement said.
During the Ole Miss game against South Carolina in October, Payton Titus of The State noted that there were double-digit injury stoppages by the Rebels, including some players going down more than once.
The issue was seen during Ole Miss’s upset loss to Kentucky on September 28. Cameras caught quarterback Jaxson Dart appearing to motion his running back Matt Jones to fall to the ground and fake an injury to get a stoppage in play.
Players feigning injuries have been a source of frustration for opposing coaches.
“First of all, I hope all those guys are OK. . . . I got my own problems. We just got our butts kicked 27-3. But it’s fascinating to me how many injuries occur for them after the opposing offense makes a first down or has a big play,” South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer said in a postgame press conference.
The letter from Sankey comes as the race to make the College Football Playoff heats up with four SEC teams currently in the top 12.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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