After considerable talk about fake injuries during last year’s college football season, the NCAA has elected not to add or change any rules surrounding the topic heading into next season.
Injuries are a consistent and unfortunate part of the game, but teams across the sport are increasingly using the good-willed intent of the rule as a loophole. If a player goes down with an injury (real or not) on defense, it allows their team essentially a free timeout, or just a chance to slow down an up-tempo offense. Without some sort of expansion of the rule, teams will now be able to continue using the fake injury loophole during games.
College Football: NCAA Dismisses College Football Fake Injury Rule Change In Stunning Decision
Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel addressed this situation after the Kentucky game in November and the Music City Bowl against Purdue in December. However, Tennessee’s game against Ole Miss in Knoxville in October was the first time it became a big topic of conversation for the Vols’ season.
And now, with the NCAA’s announcement that no change will be happening with the current rules, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin is keeping that conversation going.
After the announcement was made on Friday, Kiffin tagged Tennessee Football in the post. A simple, subtle move that attracted plenty of attention.
@Vol_Football https://t.co/IzzF22Xagc
— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) March 5, 2022
In the first 22 hours of the post from Lane Kiffin, it has collected 203 quote tweets and 319 replies.
Tennessee’s game against Ole Miss last season was nothing short of a wild event. The Vols and Rebels’ night was delayed in the fourth quarter after debris (water bottles, pom-poms, beer cans, pizza boxes) was being thrown on the field by select sections of the crowd and a mustard bottle/golf ball combination ended up being one of the most talked-about stories of the following week.
Not to mention, a football game took place.
In that game, according to Knox News’ Nick Gray, “there were 18 recorded stoppages for injuries in [the Ole Miss] game, including 11 in the fourth quarter.”
Not all of those were Ole Miss players, but a strong portion of them was and from the defensive side of the ball. It even became such a prevalent topic that the SEC Network announce team was debating rule change solutions during the broadcast in October.
However, even with all that time, the NCAA’s rules committee was not able to come up with a new solution for the ongoing problem.
One Response
seems the NCAA does not have a concern for football player safety. If, for example, play stops twice for the same player it would be irresponsible to allow that player to continue playing.