NCAA rules committee to address players faking injuries during football games?

It's a scene that plays out practically every Saturday of a college football regular season. A defensive player for a team that either wishes to stop the game clock or halt the momentum of an opposing offense goes down to a mysterious injury, misses one play, per NCAA rules, and then returns to the game as if nothing happened. 

According to Alex Scarborough of ESPN, the American Football Coaches Association wants the NCAA to do something about these alleged fake injuries. 

"Our Ethics Committee, which suggests rules changes to the NCAA, said by unanimous consent that this has got to stop," AFCA executive director Todd Berry said. "So they asked the Rules Committee to do something about it. It's bad for football." 

Berry added: "Rules need to have teeth. And if there's no teeth, there's no impact." 

Per Scarborough, the AFCA Ethics Committee voted in January to request that the NCAA address players faking injuries. One big issue with changing any injury rule is that referees often can't say, with any certainty, if a player is feigning a problem on the spot during a game. The NCAA could, however, require a player who exits the field following an injury timeout to miss at least the remainder of a series unless a coach burns a timeout to keep that player in the game. 

The NCAA rules committee is expected to discuss the subject during a virtual meeting next month.

NCAA national coordinator of officials and secretary-rules editor of the NCAA football rules committee Steve Shaw said the committee will "have heavy debate" on the topic "and see where that goes."