A proposed rule change intended to discourage players from faking injuries that prompt unwarranted timeouts will be considered when the NCAA Football Rules Committee meets this month.
Feigning injuries, sometimes at the coach’s instruction, has become a tactic defenses use to slow down tempo offenses or as a way for an offense to avoid a delay of game penalty or get an extra timeout.
The American Football Coaches Association submitted a proposal that would require a player who goes down on the field and receives medical attention to sit out the rest of that possession. Currently, the player must go out for one play before re-entering.
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“The American Football Coaches Association is acutely concerned about this,” AFCA executive director Craig Bohl said. “It goes against the grain of the betterment of our game and the ethics. We crafted this, we floated this, and it’s been received well. I’m sure there’ll be some pushback. Our point (to detractors) is give us something better if you don’t like it.”
The proposal has carveouts. A coach can use a charged timeout to get the player back on the field during the current possession. A player injured by a hit that results in a penalty would be exempt. Also, the one player on offense and one on defense with a green dot on his helmet, indicating he’s allowed to receive radio communication from the sideline, can re-enter after one play.
Injuries perceived to be feigned became such a hot topic in the Southeastern Conference last season that commissioner Greg Sankey put out a November memo admonishing teams. “As plainly as it can be stated: Stop any and all activity related to faking injuries to create time-outs,” he wrote.
The NCAA Football Rules Committee will meet the last week of February in Indianapolis, and the issue will be front and center. If the AFCA’s proposal passes and is approved in the spring by the Playing Rules Oversight Panel, it would go into effect next season.
Day gets contract extension
Ohio State coach Ryan Day, who led the Buckeyes to the national championship just over two weeks ago, has agreed in principle to a seven-year contract valued at $12.5 million a year, the school announced Thursday.
The contract, pending approval by the university’s Board of Trustees, runs through the 2031 season and would make Day the second highest-paid coach in the country behind Georgia’s Kirby Smart. Smart makes $13.3 million per year.
Day, who earned just over $10 million in 2024, was under fire by fans and media after the Buckeyes lost to rival Michigan for a fourth straight year. Ohio State received an at-large spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff and posted impressive wins over Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame for its first national title since 2014.
Day is 70-10 in six seasons, an .875 winning percentage that ranks first among active head coaches. He thanked university president Ted Carter, Bjork and the trustees for their confidence in him. He also thanked his assistant coaches and players.
“This is a team of tough and determined individuals who drive our culture of respect, commitment and love,” Day said.
Big SEC payouts
The Southeastern Conference distributed an average of almost $52.6 million to the 14 full-year members for the 2023-24 season in a slight increase from the previous year, according to its tax filing.
The league announced its revenue figures and released its tax filing Thursday for the fiscal year that ended in August, which included Oklahoma and Texas joining the league in July to expand the SEC to 16 schools. The Sooners and Longhorns each received $27.5 million in what the league described in a news release as “transition payments,” accounting for a mix of TV agreements and refundable application fees from a previous fiscal year.
Overall, the league reported a slight dip in total revenue, going from about $852.6 million for the 2022-23 season to $839.7 million for 2023-24. Yet the league distributed more money to its full-year members, going from reporting about $718 million for 2022-23 to $790.7 million for 2023-24 when factoring in the partial amounts for Oklahoma and Texas.
When looking at the most recent tax filings produced by other power conferences, the SEC’s 2023-24 average would trail only the Big Ten, which reported total revenues of $845.6 million with an average payout of $58 million to full members for 2021-22, followed by $879.9 million and $60.3 million for 2022-23.
The tax filing also showed commissioner Greg Sankey made more than $4.2 million in compensation, as well as more than $68,000 in additional compensation from the SEC and related organizations. That was up from about $3.6 million and more than $63,000 in 2022-23.
Grubb rejoins DeBoer
Ryan Grubb is reuniting with Kalen DeBoer as Alabama’s offensive coordinator after they worked together to get Washington to a College Football Playoff championship game.
Alabama announced Thursday that Grubb had joined DeBoer’s staff. Grubb had been the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach on DeBoer’s Washington staff from 2022-23.
Washington’s 2023 team was a victory away from a national title with DeBoer as head coach, Grubb as offensive coordinator and 2024 Atlanta Falcons first-round draft pick Michael Penix Jr. as quarterback.
After Washington lost 34-13 to Michigan in the CFP championship game, DeBoer left to take over Alabama’s program. Grubb had planned to join him at Alabama until he got hired as the Seattle Seahawks’ offensive coordinator.
Grubb was fired at the end of the Seahawks’ 10-7 season.
Grubb was Eastern Michigan’s offensive line coach from 2014-16.
Surgery for Kansas’ Daniels
Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels recently underwent knee surgery and will be limited in spring practice, the school said Thursday.
Daniels has started 33 games for the Jayhawks and will be returning for his sixth season. The school said Daniels’ surgery was minor.
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