A major new rule change regarding player injuries could come to college football if the NCAA can secure approval, according to a new report.
Members of the NCAA rules committee are considering a rule change that would have injured players sit out an entire drive, according to The Athletic.
The rule would apply to all players except for quarterbacks, and comes on the heels of NCAA coaches discussing a similar rule change in talks last month.
“There’s a push by the stakeholders in the game saying, on feigning injuries, something must be done,” national coordinator of officials and committee rules editor Steve Shaw said.
He added: “We can’t kick the can down the road once again.”
If the rules committee can create a formal proposal, it would advance to the Playing Rules Oversight Panel in April for its approval.
The proposed change could exempt quarterbacks and other “green dot players,” those who wear the visible sticker signaling that they have helmet communications with coaching staff, because of the marked effect on the game that their absence would entail.
This isn’t the first time that college football’s decision makers have attempted to curb what appeared to be an effort by teams to have their players fake injuries to stall opponents’ momentum.
Back in November, the SEC announced it would begin implementing a punishment for teams that are believed to have their players fake an injury.
“I’m glad,” said Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, whose team was accused by commentators of employing the strategy at times this past season.
Kiffin added: “I know some people say, okay, that sounds weird coming from me. We’re a tempo offense. I’ve been saying this for years, okay, that faking an injury hurts us more than anybody, us and Tennessee, probably more than anybody in America.”
One prominent case of an apparently faked injury came when Ole Miss running back Matt Jones fell to the ground during a game in September.
At the time, college football rules analyst Matt Austin confirmed that the NCAA’s rule book doesn’t proscribe fake injuries directly, leaving officials without recourse to punish the act.
“There’s actually nothing in the rule book that says you cannot do that,” Austin said on the broadcast.
“There is very strong wording about being unethical to fake an injury at any time during the game. I know the rules-makers have talked about it several times, but as of right now, there’s nothing you in the book can do about it.”
Kirk Herbstreit also recently called out the practice of apparently faking injuries “unethical as hell.”
“This is college football. It drives me crazy,” Herbstreit said during a game.
“They look over after a big play, and all of a sudden, he looks over and he just goes down. It’s not necessarily against the rules, but it’s unethical as hell. When you see this all over against these tempo offenses, guys just go down with the quote-unquote ‘injury.’”
Now, the NCAA hopes to find a solution to a problem that college football wants an answer to before the kickoff of the 2025 season.
–
More college football from SI: Top 25 Rankings | Schedule | Teams
Follow College Football HQ: Bookmark | Rankings | Picks
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
