BREAKING SEC will begin penalizing coaches this week if it is determined players feign injury during games

[4Q Basket Case]

Looks like Sankey's letter defines faking after the fact. Which means in-game penalties of whatever description wouldn't be assessed. Only after the game is over and decided.

IOW, it's a nice start, but doesn't go far enough.

What should happen in game is:
- If we have to stop the game for your injury, you're out for the remainder of the possession. Might be a play. Might be 15. You're out until a change of possession.

After the fact:
- We'll assess fines, suspensions and the like later. They're still pending even after the game is over, and even if a penalty wasn't assessed in-game.
- Any assessed fines go not to the SEC, but to the opposing school.
- For example, if Team X flops against Team Y, and later gets assessed a $500K fine, that $500K goes directly to Team Y's athletic department.
- If post-game review indicates that a starter was pulled, a scrub was substituted, and the scrub faked an injury in order to stop the clock, the HC is suspended for a game and forfeits 1/12th of his salary to the opposing school.

Don't like the cases where a player just has the breath knocked out or has cramps and really is ready to come back a play or two later? Tough noogies. You shouldn't have perverted provisions designed to protect player safety.

You reap what you sow.

While Ole Miss, the barn, and UTe pioneered and/or perfected the fake, all schools do it now, including us. If the officials aren't going to assess a penalty of some sort, why would anyone else cede a competitive advantage?

Like a lot of things, the fake injury itself isn't illegal. But it contravenes the spirit of the game. That gap has been abused to the point that the distinction is no longer relevant.

Time has come for real penalties to be assessed both in-game and after the fact.

 

[JDCrimson]

I wish the coaches had a challenge flag that could be thrown once per half where they could challenge any call or non-call the field. I think this only fair in light of the SEC clarification.

If the offense substitutes, and the officials dont allow the defense to substitute then the coach ought to be allowed to throw his challenge flag to stop play, review, and allow substitution.

Or change the clock rules to where running clock stops at the 5 minute mark rather than the 2 minute mark.

 

[RammerJammer14]

Looks like Sankey's letter defines faking after the fact. Which means in-game penalties of whatever description wouldn't be assessed. Only after the game is over and decided.

IOW, it's a nice start, but doesn't go far enough.

What should happen in game is:
- If we have to stop the game for your injury, you're out for the remainder of the possession. Might be a play. Might be 15. You're out until a change of possession.

After the fact:
- We'll assess fines, suspensions and the like later. They're still pending even after the game is over, and even if a penalty wasn't assessed in-game.
- Any assessed fines go not to the SEC, but to the opposing school.
- For example, if Team X flops against Team Y, and later gets assessed a $500K fine, that $500K goes directly to Team Y's athletic department.
- If post-game review indicates that a starter was pulled, a scrub was substituted, and the scrub faked an injury in order to stop the clock, the HC is suspended for a game and forfeits 1/12th of his salary to the opposing school.

Don't like the cases where a player just has the breath knocked out or has cramps and really is ready to come back a play or two later? Tough noogies. You shouldn't have perverted provisions designed to protect player safety.

You reap what you sow.

While Ole Miss, the barn, and UTe pioneered and/or perfected the fake, all schools do it now, including us. If the officials aren't going to assess a penalty of some sort, why would anyone else cede a competitive advantage?

Like a lot of things, the fake injury itself isn't illegal. But it contravenes the spirit of the game. That gap has been abused to the point that the distinction is no longer relevant.

Time has come for real penalties to be assessed both in-game and after the fact.

I think though that we want to be careful about punishing on-field injuries too harshly. It could incentivize players playing through legitimately dangerous situations so they don’t get removed from the game for large stretches, or the opposing team doing something dangerous to remove a key player from a drive.

 

[BamaInCummingGA]

This is all fine and good but ,Commissioner, y'all had best address substitution rules now and making sure the refs spot the ball in an equal amount of time for both teams on the field and not slap the ball down faster for one team than the other. To add to this, the head ref must also make sure all officials are securely in place and ready to start the play before the offense is allowed to snap the ball.

 

[cbi1972]

I have had about enough of these hurry up offenses and I honestly don't care if players flop to annoy them. These fast offenses get players hurt all by themselves.

 

[Krymsonman]

I still think any player that's injured should have to sit out the rest of that drive.

Let's get crazy. Don't know how they would keep track of it, but how about sitting out the rest of the quarter.

 

[Krymsonman]

The substitution rule is the real problem Receiver runs a deep route, then leaves the field while a new receiver comes on. Defense should be able to substitute, but refs miss these all the time.

 

[Tidewater]

They should concentrate more on the horrible officiating than on this...

How will they determine this anyways?

The phrase, "is determined" is passive voice, which hides the actor. Who will do the determining? Sankey?
I think that charging the team a timeout and forbidding the injured player from returning during that possession would also make the punishment fit the crime.
And would give medical professionals adequate time to assess the injury. This would enhance player safety, if anyone is actually concerned by that anymore.

 

[JDCrimson]

The way i read this is the players are just going to have get better at feigning injury. Maybe learn to vomit on signal or something. Fake a groin injury.

 

[CrimSonami]

I still think any player that's injured should have to sit out the rest of that drive.

That'll help, maybe. If this were the case, I think we'd see a higher frequency of defensive players going down once the drive gets inside the 10-15 yard line. At least until such time as the fines are issued AND collected.

 

[AlistarWills]

I really think this is a threat. Hoping the potential shot to the pocketbook will change things without them having to get serious. The only way to see if it’s real is for someone to get fined and it be made public.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

I really think this is a threat. Hoping the potential shot to the pocketbook will change things without them having to get serious. The only way to see if it’s real is for someone to get fined and it be made public.

It'll have to be a big fine. $250K doesn't stop fans from storming the field. $50K sure won't stop a fake injury at a "fortuitous" time.

I also like the idea of the money going not to the SEC, but to the opponent's Athletic Department.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

Seems to me that fake injuries are mainly an SEC problem. So two questions:

- Is my gut feeling accurate? Or do other conferences also deal with this?
- If it's isolated (or at least concentrated) in the SEC, how do other conferences keep a lid on it?

 

[oskie]

Ole Miss should be able to finally play a fast game tomorrow.

From my observation, it would seem that Ole Miss' opponent should be able to play a faster game.
.

 

[BamaNation]

IOW, it's a nice start, but doesn't go far enough.

What should happen in game is:
- If we have to stop the game for your injury, you're out for the remainder of the possession. Might be a play. Might be 15. You're out until a change of possession.

YES! This alone might be enough to end 99.37% of this nonsense...and I'm glad Sankey used the word "nonsense." It's my favorite word to express when calling out all manner of idiocy.

AND to go back to the point about "what if refs don't stop play" ... should be "red flag reviewable" and if the team that threw the red flag is correct, they don't lose a timeout plus get to stick the red flag back in their pocket for another review. Again, we allow reviews for all manner of things that eat up time and are barely worth it. Things like this are MAJOR turning point kind of things and should be reviewable both in the booth and by flag review.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

That'll help, maybe. If this were the case, I think we'd see a higher frequency of defensive players going down once the drive gets inside the 10-15 yard line. At least until such time as the fines are issued AND collected.

It might, but I'm not really sure how to counter defensive coaches and players faking injury when the possession -- and therefore the sit-out time -- is likely to be only a few plays. Maybe expand the sit-out time to a quarter.

But even that has a bunch of "what abouts," that would naturally fall out:
- What about the unintended effect of a long sit-out time keeping players from reporting legitimate injuries?
- What about when it's near the end of a quarter? What about when it's near the end of a half?
- If you make it the longer of, say, 5 minutes of clock time or the end of the quarter, how do you track that in real time and who is responsible for it?
- If you have a minimum amount of time, but the quarter has less than that left, does it carry over into the next quarter? What about if it's the end of a game -- does it carry over into the next game?

Still, I don't want a quest for perfection to be the enemy of getting better.

IOW, we shouldn't sit on our hands and do nothing simply because we can't come up with a solution that is both (1) perfectly executable, and (2) covers any and all possible circumstances and shenanigans.

Side Note: Given the atrocious record of SEC refs, I really like the red flag super-challenge whereby anything, even stuff not normally reviewable, can be challenged. You get one such challenge per game. If you're wrong, you've used up your only challenge and are charged a time out.* If you're right, you lose neither the challenge nor the time out.

*If you have no time-outs left when you lose a super-challenge, you are charged a 20 second runoff. If there are less than 20 seconds left in the half or game, that ends the half or game. However, to prevent shenanigans, the opposing team can decline to assess the 20-second runoff.

 

[BamaInCummingGA]

Do we get to penalize officials for not letting defenses legally substitute? As someone said above: a receiver runs a deep route and goes off to the sideline and a new offensive player comes on and the officials miss it, does that qualify to be reviewed by the booth and play stopped so the defense can then sub? If not, then Sanky needs to shut up. You have to make it fair for both sides of the ball.

 

[PA Tide Fan]

From my observation, it would seem that Ole Miss' opponent should be able to play a faster game.
.

You're right. I misspoke and should have said Ole Miss will be FORCED to play a fast game.

 

[bamadwain]

Yeah I thought it was pretty cheap for Ross Dellinger to bring it up about us in the Tennessee game. As I recall, it was the first time we did it and IT WAS DUE THE OFFICIALS not following proper procedures and allowing us to match up with their offensive personnel after a change of possession. Even Matt Austin said they screwed up.

Matt Austin is a screw up! But that was one of the worst fake injuries I have seen

 

[Tide&True]

I was thinking they need to give a fourth time out per half. The team has to use their own time outs for injury or to stop play. If you run out of time outs and a player goes down you get penalized ( _____ number of yards).