Greg Sankey scolded a good number of schools in the SEC that have had players fake injuries in order to stop the clock and allow the coaching staff to regroup and call a new play. Sankey offered a clear outlined process to coaches on how to curb this issue.
"When defending against a 'hurry up' offense, you are to use the allocated team time-outs if you need to stop play, or you may allow the play to continue with the personnel and defensive play call in place," Sankey wrote in a leaked memo (h/t Rivals). "When on offense, if the play clock is running out, you are to use a team time-out or accept the delay of game penalty. Creating injury time-outs in these circumstances is not acceptable and is disrespectful to the game of college football.
"Moving forward, if a circumstance warrants the National Coordinator's review of a possible feigned injury, the play will be submitted from the SEC office to the National Coordinator for review. If the National Coordinator determines that a feigned injury has occurred, that is is more likely than not that a feigned injury occurred, that a player attempted to feign an injury, or any other general statement from the National Coordinator establishing the probability of a feigned injury, I will apply the agreed upon penalties..."
The penalties for being caught faking injuries is $50,000 on the first offense, $100,000 on the second offense, and a one-game suspension on the third and any subsequent offenses.
Greg Sankey needing to address rash of fake injuries in the SEC is an embarrassing look for college football
Lane Kiffin was chief among the head coaches blamed for this on Twitter. Penn State's James Franklin's name come up. But those two are just symptoms of the problem. This is a national shortcoming.
With money pouring into the sport, you'd think this behavior would be lessened. But the entitled attitudes of coaches and players is leading to a blatant disregard for the rules and blatant disrespect to everyone who can spot this strategy from a mile away.
Don't be surprised to see coaches tow the line and spend the $150,000 on the extra timeouts. In a sport like football, that could be chump change if it means the difference between winning and losing.