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Perhaps no college football coach in the country has been as vocal about his disdain for fake injuries as Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin.
However, since the SEC and NCAA have, thus far, refused to act on the issue, Kiffin has also pushed the boundaries of how far he can go with having his players fake injuries.
Now it appears he’s finally gotten his way. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sent a memo to league athletic directors and head football coaches on Friday outlining the punishment if players continue to fake injuries in games.
“As plainly as it can be stated: Stop any and all activity related to faking injuries to create time-outs,” the memo read according to a report from Chris Low of ESPN.
“Play football and stop the feigned injury nonsense,” it concluded.
With the increased prevalence of up-tempo offenses in college football, teams have faked injuries more and more often to attempt to slow the game down.
But the examples have become so egregious that teams can no longer even pretend that it’s not what they’re doing.
Take, for example, the Alabama coach who shoved his own player back onto the field to fake an injury against Tennessee.
SEC Lays Out Guidelines For Fake Injury Punishments After Lane Kiffin Complaints
So, now what?
According to Low, “Each play where a fake injury might have occurred must be submitted to the SEC for review. Steve Shaw, the national coordinator of football officiating, will determine what constitutes a fake injury. According to Sankey’s memo, those guidelines will range from Shaw determining that a feigned injury has occurred, that it is more likely than not that a feigned injury has occurred, that a player attempted to feign an injury or any other general statement from Shaw establishing the probability of a feigned injury.”
But the NCAA and SEC have very little power to punish players for faking injuries. So it’s coaches that will face the full power of the SEC’s jurisdiction.
On the first offense, the offending head coach will receive a public reprimand and a $50,000 fine. The second time around will face another reprimand and a $100,000 fine. And if there’s a third violation, the coach will be suspended for his program’s next game.
It’s long past time the SEC did something about this. But better late than never.