Penalties for faking injuries isn’t the only new rule change coming to college football in 2025

New rule changes are coming to college football this season.

We already knew about the change to feigning injuries, the NCAA recognizing that players going down with fake injuries to build in extra timeouts was becoming far too common (looking at you, Lane Kiffin). A delay of game penalty (or a charged timeout if a team has timeouts remaining) will now be enforced if a player goes down with an injury after the ball has been spotted by officials. Said player must also sit out one down and has to receive the go-ahead from professional medical personnel before returning to action. It’s a welcome adjustment to the flow of the game.

But that’s hardly the only rule change we’ll see on the gridiron in 2025. Here are some of the other significant modifications to the rule book, which includes 14 total modifications.

• Timeouts in Extra Periods: If a game goes to overtime, teams will be allowed one timeout each in both the first and second overtime periods. But if the game goes to a third overtime and beyond, each team will only be allowed one more timeout for the remainder of the game. Media timeouts will only be allowed after the first and second overtimes.
• Instant Replay – Referee Announcement: After calls are reviewed, the phrase used by officials will no longer be whether the call is “confirmed” or “stands.” It will simply be “upheld” or “overturned.”
• Team Pre-Snap Movement: A defensive player within one yard of the line of scrimmage can no longer “make quick and abrupt or exaggerated actions” that are not part of normal movement in order to make the offense commit a foul. The same goes for offensive players.
• Defenseless Players: A player attempting to recover a losse ball is now considered a defenseless player.
• Substitution Fouls by the Defense after the Two-Minute Timeout: After the two-minute timeout, if a defense is flagged for 12 men on the field, the offense can elect to reset the clock.

All of those are interesting (and mostly welcome) rule changes, but the very final bullet point on the list of new changes was the one that stood out the most. If a player even thinks about pretending to use or even brandish a gun, they’ll be hit with an unsportsmanlike penalty. The finger guns will no longer be allowed.

“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.”

That language is more than likely going to be misinterpreted at some point in the season, but it’s undertsanable why it’s being incorporated. If you’re a real stickler for the rules, you can dive into the entire 2025 rule book for Division I college football here.