College football rule changes: Fake injury reprucssions, overtime timeouts & more in 2025

After years of coaches complaining, college football is working to crack down on fake injuries. The college football rule changes for the 2025 season specifically focus on feigning injuries, a year after player-to-coach communication was introduced with green dots popping up on helmets across college football.

With Week 1 here and five consecutive days of college football over Labor Day weekend, here’s a look at what the new rules are in college football in 2025.

Crackdown on fake injuries

Faking injuries — coaches instructing players to feign an injury for a strategic reason — is not a new concept. The practice has become a tactic used to slow down the rhythm of an offense or avoid a delay-of-the-game penalty. Faking injuries has existed for decades and continues to be one of the most talked-about complaints from coaches.

Steve Shaw, national coordinator of officials, was on the record three years ago against fake injuries, stating that they go “against every principle of our game. It’s a bad look. We’re intent on taking it out of the game.

Now beginning in 2025, 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 with a timeout. If the team does not have any timeouts remaining, they’ll be charged with a 5-yard delay-of-game penalty.

The injured player must also remain out of the game for at least one down. Even if the team is granted a timeout, the player cannot return to the field before being cleared on the sidelines by a medical professional.

Overtime changes

When a game heads to overtime, each team will be allowed one timeout in the first and second overtime periods, per usual. But after the first two periods, teams will only have one access for the remainder ot the game. Before the rule change this offseason, a team was allowed one timeout for each overtime.

Other rule changes to follow

+ If the ruling on the field is not overturned following video reviews, officials will announce the call is upheld. In years past, an official would state the ruling was “confirmed” or “stands” if the play is not overturned. Officials will break down the reasoning behind the decision if the play is changed.

+ If a player holds out his arms to make a “T” on kick returns, it means the team gives up the right to make a return and the play will be called dead.

+ New changes are coming to what a defensive player can do on the line of scrimmage. Any defensive player within a yard of the line of scrimmage cannot simulate an action to make the offense commit a penalty. The same procedure will be followed on the offensive side of the ball that attempts to force a false start.

+ Having more than 11 players on the field when the ball is snapped is a live-ball foul and a 5-yard penalty. If the penalty is called after the two-minute mark in either half, the offense can reset the game clock back to the time on the clock at the time of the snap. The game clock will restart on the next snap.

+ All forms of gun violence are not permitted in college football and simulating the firing of a weapon is an automatic unsportsmanlike foul. Added to the rule in 2025, if a player brandishes a weapon, it is considered an unsportsmanlike act.