Syracuse fined for faking injuries vs. Clemson

The ACC fined Syracuse $25,000 and publicly reprimanded the school Monday for faking injuries in a 34-21 win over Clemson last weekend, calling its actions "unethical and contrary to the spirit of the rules."

In a statement, the ACC said Syracuse violated a NCAA rule established this year aimed at stopping teams from faking injuries to slow down play.

With 9:25 left in the fourth quarter, the ACC said the action of two players and a coach "were a clear attempt to gain an unmerited advantage by stopping the game in order to secure an injury timeout."

Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik accused Syracuse of faking injuries after the loss as a way to slow down its tempo.

"We were playing with tempo and props to them, they stopped us on some third downs and then they have an injury or something like that when we really got going," Klubnik said. "That's up to them if they want to be honest about that.

"That was definitely tough for us to really get in a rhythm. We're playing fast and unfortunately they had a guy get hurt or a timeout or something like that."

Syracuse defensive linemen Nissi Ogbebor and Kevin Jobity Jr. are both seen falling to the ground after a 23-yard completion from Klubnik to Tristan Smith for a first down to the Orange 9-yard line. The game was stopped so trainers could attend to them, as the Clemson crowd booed.

The ACC office and the National Coordinator of Football Officials reviewed the play. According to the ACC, the national coordinator "agreed that the action violated the spirit of the injury timeout and fair play and was done in a way to circumvent the new injury timeout rule to avoid the team being charged a timeout."

Under the new NCAA rule, a team is charged a timeout if a player goes to the ground injured after the ball is spotted. But in this case, both players went down before the ball was spotted, so Syracuse was not charged a timeout.