NCAA football will throw the flag on fake injuries in 2025

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00:00The NCAA is throwing a penalty flag at fake injuries in college football, literally.

00:05New rules will be in effect for the upcoming season designed to combat teams trying to intentionally slow down the game.

00:14There are no statistics outlining how many players faked an injury to stop the clock during the past few seasons,

00:20but the NCAA made it an off-season priority to put an end to the shady tactic.

00:26Ole Miss running back Matt Jones was caught on camera going down last year.

00:32Dart gestures at Jones to say, hey, they want you to go down, and he goes down.

00:37ESPN and ABC college football analyst Kirk Herbstreet called out the practice during the Oklahoma-Tennessee game in 2024.

00:45It drives me crazy. They look over after a big play, and all of a sudden he looks over and he just goes down.

00:51It's not necessarily against the rules, but it's unethical as hell.

00:55As Herbstreet points out, faking an injury to stop the clock is used to slow down up-tempo offenses

01:01that tend to confuse the defense or make them tired.

01:05The fake injury can also be used as a way for a team to get an extra timeout.

01:10But not any longer.

01:12Starting this season, if a player goes down injured after the ball is spotted by the officiating crew

01:18and medical personnel go onto the field of play, the player's team will be charged to timeout.

01:24If the team has no timeouts left, officials will assess a five-yard delay of game penalty.

01:30To further discourage intentionally going down, injured players must miss at least one play,

01:36even if a timeout is used.

01:38And they will not be permitted to return until they've been formally cleared by the team's medical staff.

01:44There are several other rule changes for 2025 as well.

01:47For instance, teams get fewer timeouts in overtime.

01:50And there are enhanced rules against a defense simulating a snap and having 12 men on the field to try and stop the clock.

01:59For Straight Arrow News, I'm Chris Francis.