NCAA changes rules on injury timeouts in football

Yahoo

17-04-2025

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — In an attempt to reduce the number of fake injury timeouts that slow the game and attempt to break the opposition's momentum, the NCAA has changed its rules for injury timeouts in college football beginning with the upcoming football season.
According to a release by the NCAA, the new rule came after many in the college football community raised concerns about the strategy that some players may use of faking an injury to stop the game and avoiding using an allotted timeout.
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Under the new rule, if medical personnel enter the field to evaluate an injured player after the ball is spotted by the officiating crew for the next play, the player's team will be charged a timeout. If the team doesn't have a time out, they will instead be assessed a 5-yard delay-of-game penalty.
The NCAA added that if it is determined that a play has faked an injury to manipulate the rules, the offending team's conference will be notified and the conference office will be in charge of handing down any possible disciplinary actions that could be taken.
The topic is one the NCAA has discussed in recent years. Before the 2021 season, a framework was added to allow a school or conference to request a postgame video review by NCAA officials over questionable actions involving injuries. With the new rule, the NCAA said it is being implemented for the upcoming season to provide an in-game mechanism to dissuade players from faking injuries because Football Rules Committee members are concerned the action negatively impacts the overall perception of the sport.
In addition to the new rule, there has also been a change to overtime timeouts. To keep the game moving, the NCAA now says if a game reaches third overtime, each team will have one timeout beginning with the third overtime until a winner is determined. Previously, teams were given one timeout for each overtime period. At the start of third overtime, teams alternate 2-point plays until a winner is decided.
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Although the NCAA did not attribute the change to any particular reason, the change does come after there have been several games with extensive overtimes in the last few years. Last season, Georgia and Georgia Tech's matchup ended in the eighth overtime, and in 2022, Eastern Kentucky and Bowling Green went into seven overtimes. The record for the most overtimes in NCAA history is held by Illinois and Penn State, who reached the nine-overtime mark on October 23, 2021.
The NCAA's panel did change a few additional rules. The full list can be found on the NCAA's website.
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