Greg Sankey threatens to levy huge fines and even suspension at head coaches whose teams fake injuries, according to memo
Fake injuries have been a huge topic of conversation this season, especially in the SEC. While this is a phenomenon that has swept the nation, it's really no secret that the team considered the chief perpetrators of this eye-roll-inducing tactic reside in the heart of the SEC—Oxford, Mississippi, that is.
Again, though, it's not just Lane Kiffin's team that is considered to be a squad that bends the rules to their advantage in this way. While it feels grimy and chafes at the sensibilities of watching audiences, there's technically no rule against faking an injury to induce a stoppage in play.
The lack of such explicit rules has really precipitated this development, as the practice has become more and more common while teams search for every competitive advantage and loophole of which they can avail themselves. It has become so nauseatingly common, though, that conference commissioners are beginning to step in.
According to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey sent a firmly-worded memo out to coaches and ADs in the conference, warning them of the consequences to come if they engage in this practice.
Greg Sankey sent a memo to SEC coaches & ADs ordering them to stop directing players to feign injuries & instituting penalties that include, on a 3rd offense, a coach suspension, per a copy obtained by @YahooSports.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) November 1, 2024
"Play football & stop the feigned injury nonsense," he writes. pic.twitter.com/1ShgBeve9V
In it, Sankey details that there is a National Coordinator for Football Officiating (first I've heard of this position) whose job it is to determine whether a feigned injury occurred in a game. Sankey says that, going forward, he will consider a feigned injury to have occurred when that National Coordinator determines that it is "more likely than not" that this is the case.
In other words, it's not "beyond a reasonable doubt," but a "preponderance of the evidence" standard. Not a supermajority, but a simple majority.
The first offense will result in a public reprimand, and a $50,000 fine. The second offense also results in a reprimand, and the fine is doubled. For the third and subsequent offenses, the head coach—and any staff member involved in the process whose third offense this is—will receive a one-game suspension.
He briefly mentions that athletes can be subject to reprimands, but says nothing about whether they would be suspended, leading me to believe that they would not be. Even so, that's a harsh penalty for the coaches.
I doubt we ever get there, in all honesty, but it's good to see that something is being done in this interim time before official rules can be changed. This is something that has gotten way too far out of control, and I appreciate the effort to move things back towards the center.
Apropos of nothing, Ole Miss plays Arkansas this weekend. Looking forward to that one!