SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sent a memo to league athletic directors and coaches this week demanding teams "play football and stop the feigned injury nonsense," CBS Sports confirmed. The memo lays out a punishment system for feigned injuries that includes suspensions for coaches upon third offenses.
"As plainly as it can be stated: stop any and all activity related to faking injuries to create time-outs," Sankey wrote in the memo.
The sternly worded message from Sankey, one of the sport's most powerful leaders, comes amid what some consider to be an epidemic of fake injuries in college football. In particular, defenses faced with slowing down up-tempo offenses have taken to faking injuries in recent years as a means of slowing the action.
"When a game stoppage is needed, use a team time-out in accordance with NCAA Football Rule 3-3-4," read the memo from Sankey. "This is not a complicated or confusing principle."
According to a punishment tier laid out in the memo, head coaches will receive a public reprimand and a $50,000 fine on first offense. A second infraction will lead to another reprimand and a $100,000 fine.
On third offenses, the coach of the offending team will be suspended for the school's next game.
Determination of fake injuries will be assesed by the national coordinator of football officiating, which is Steve Shaw, under the following parameters laid out in Sankey's memo:
"If the National Coordinator determines that a feigned injury has occurred, that it is more likely than not that a feigned injury occurred, that a player attempted to feign an injury, or any other general statement from the National Coordinator establishing the probability of a feigned injury."
"Your team should be prepared to compete fairly under the rules of the game," Sankey wrote.