Ex-NFL ref criticizes college football’s new crackdown

Former NFL referee Terry McAulay was unhappy with how college football referees utilized the new injury rule in Georgia Tech’s win over Colorado on Friday night.

McAulay pointed to a crucial decision with 2:34 left in the fourth quarter. The Yellow Jackets and Buffaloes were tied at 20 apiece. A Georgia Tech player went down with an injury and medical personnel came out onto the field to check on him. However, Georgia Tech was charged one of their three timeouts because of the stoppage in play.

The NCAA made it a point to crack down on players faking injuries. If a player on the field presents as injured after the ball is spotted for the next play, that player’s team will be charged a timeout. If the team doesn’t have any timeouts remaining, a 5-yard delay-of-game penalty would be assessed to the team.

In this instance, McAulay disagreed with Big 12 Conference officials.

“The Big 12 doubles down on being ridiculously over officious regarding the new injury rule. Again, this player was clearly injured at the end of the play, and yet the offense was still charged a TO,” he wrote on X.

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“What makes it worse, the Replay official can communicate to the field about timing of the injury and somehow failed to note it was well before the ball was spotted.”

McAulay made the same point during last weekend’s game between Kansas State and Iowa State.

“We already have an example of why I expressed concerns that this rule would unfairly penalize a team that did nothing wrong. This player is clearly injured and yet because he went down after the ball was spotted, they were charged a timeout,” he wrote. “Even worse, it appears he was demonstrating he was injured before the ball was spotted. 

“This is not a good rule.”

Georgia Tech won the game, 27-20.

The NCAA Football Rules Committee took aim at players feigning injuries to stop the game clock. Additionally, a player must sit out one play even if the team is granted a timeout and may not return until a medical professional approves it.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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