College Football could potentially see a rule change this offseason that many fans have talked about for years.
According to a report from ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg this weekend, “the NCAA football rules committee has proposed a timeout to be charged whenever medical personnel enter the field to evaluate players after the ball has been spotted for the ensuing play.”
What about a late-game situation where a team is out of timeouts?
“Teams without timeouts would be assessed a five-yard delay-of-game penalty for each instance,” Rittenberg wrote.
The injury timeout proposal is one of many rule-change ideas that will go to schools before going back to the NCAA’s playing rules oversight panel in April, where it may receive approval.
Rittenberg’s report over the weekend also comes just over a month after a report from Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger, stating that college coaches were working on a proposal to attack the issue this offseason. Dellenger’s report, though, was more about forcing an injured player to miss the remainder of the possession, except if a timeout is called, where they could then return.
Faking injuries has been a nationwide conversation that has ramped up in the last few years as offenses have implemented speed into their arsenals. When Josh Heupel’s Tennessee offense first hit the scene in 2021 and 2022, opponents used fake injury tactics on defense to try to slow down the Vols’ offense and the pace of the possession.
In the 2024 season, Ole Miss was blasted by ABC broadcaster Sean McDonough for a blatant offensive fake injury to be able to talk to the offense during a commercial without having to waste a penalty.
Shocking injury for Ole Miss’ RB….if you’re uneasy looking at injuries, do not watch this. Hoping for full recovery.pic.twitter.com/EhvOArWFZg
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) September 28, 2024
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Especially without a little bit of trial and error, there doesn’t seem to be a perfect way to get rid of fake injuries yet. Losing a timeout, a player, or five yards would certainly discourage teams from faking injuries on the field, but you can still get away with some of those based on how the game is managed/played up to that point.
That all being said, though, it is an aspect of that game that blurs the rules and should be addressed with the proper changes. A rushed approach could hurt the overall game, but it doesn’t look like that’ll necessarily be the case. Fake injuries have been a large conversation by higher-ups over the past few years, and isn’t a brand new topic.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sent out a memo to conference members last season, urging teams to stop the use of fake injuries during the season. Sankey’s memo even threatened fines and punishments (1st – $50,000, 2nd – $100,000, 3rd- Suspension) for coaches who did not comply.
In Rittenberg’s article, ESPN used a video of the Tennessee-Oklahoma game to supplement the fake-injury point that was being talked about. The video shows Oklahoma defensive lineman (and former UT DL) Da’Jon Terry going down with the Vols’ offense on the field in Norman.
“It’s not necessarily against the rules, but it’s unethical as hell,” ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit said on the broadcast.
If everything makes its way through the process this offseason, though, it will be against the rules.
We’ll just have to see how everything shakes out.
