What does college football have in common with men’s international soccer?
Fake injuries. And a lot of them.
Whether you’re a fan of a team from the SEC, Big Ten, ACC, and independent, or a fan of a squad from a Group of Five conference chances are extremely high that you’ve seen your team have a fake injury pulled on them and that your favorite squad has faked an injury on someone else.
Well, that won’t be going away anytime soon. At least not for the 2022 college football season.
The NCAA Football Rules Committee issued the following statement on Friday:
To address teams that are awarded an injury timeout through deceptive actions, the committee proposed a reporting and investigation process. Schools and conferences would be able to report questionable scenarios to the national coordinator of officials, who will review and provide feedback to the conference for further action. Any penalties levied would be up to the conference office or school involved.
“It is very difficult to legislate ethics, particularly when an injury timeout is being used to gain an advantage,” David Shaw said. “The small number of teams that seem to use these tactics should be addressed directly.”
The committee considered several in-game options to address this, including altering the injury timeout rule to remove the injured student-athlete for more than one play, which is the current rule. This concept was debated at length, but the committee was concerned with the additional issues that could be created and did not want to encourage players to continue to participate when injured.
Committee members discussed how the pace of play appears to be contributing to this concern. “We considered all options to address this issue, including allowing both teams an opportunity to substitute after a first down,” David Shaw said. “This is another step to consider in the future.”
So there won’t be a penalty during the actual game but perhaps your program will be penalized in the days after. Sure, that will get the problem to go away.
Just like fining athletic departments gets fans to stop rushing the field, right?
I don’t have the right answer in how to fix the faking of injuries but anyone who watches college football sees it on the regular and to anyone with an ounce of competitive spirit, they’re angered by the acts. However, it appears those acts will be here to stay for at least 2022 and likely beyond.
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