The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel on Wednesday approved modifications to the injury timeout rules in football, beginning with the 2025-26 season.
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, that player’s team will be charged a timeout.
If the team does not have any timeouts remaining, a 5-yard delay-of-game penalty will be assessed.
The injury timeout proposal was made by the NCAA Football Rules Committee after many in the college football community raised concerns about strategies in which players fake an injury to stop the opposition’s momentum or to avoid using an allotted timeout.