These rule changes are coming to SEC football in 2025

College football is always evolving. That is the same for how the game is officiated yearly. John McDaid is the SEC’s coordinator for football officials and he has a presentation every year at media days to discuss the state of officiating and what changes could be coming on Saturdays in the fall.

There are going to be a view rule alterations this season.

Tempo substitution enforcement, kickoff safety, and fake injuries are all being addressed by the conference.

Enforcing athletic pace for defensive substitutions

Remember Shane Beamer‘s meltdown at the Citrus Bowl in South Carolina’s loss to Illinois. You know, the one where Bret Bielema was laughing on the sideline. A part of that had to do with how the Illini were handling defensive substitutions. To combat tempo offenses, defenses have begun subbing at an incredibly slow rate.

“What we’ve seen over the last couple years — and we definitely saw it at a high volume or a higher volume in the 2024 postseason — is defenses are starting to try to game how they’re doing their match-up substitutions and trying to eat up the play clock,” McDaid said at SEC Media Days. “So we’re adding the concept of the substitutions need to be done with an athletic pace. The standard has always been the defense must substitute promptly. That was the standard that we need to interpret for our judgment on what the defense is doing. We’re adding now that they need to do it at an athletic pace.”

After the offense declares their 11 on the field, defenses will be given three seconds to sub. The players entering and leaving the game then must move with “athletic pace” to get lined up so the offense can snap the ball. Failure to comply will result in a penalty.

Timeouts will be charged for a fake injury

Fake injuries have been a long-standing issue in college football. It is a way for defenses to combat tempo offenses and gives coaches an opportunity to create an extra timeout. The SEC is attempting to eliminate these “feigned injuries” in 2025.

“Once the ball has been spotted at the spot on the field for the succeeding snap, the ball is
now ready for play,” McDaid explained. “And should a player go down such that an official is forced to call an official’s timeout for injury, that player’s team is going to be charged a timeout.”

Remember this from the Kentucky-Ole Miss game last year? It would cost Lane Kiffin a timeout this fall.

Shocking injury for Ole Miss’ RB….if you’re uneasy looking at injuries, do not watch this. Hoping for full recovery.pic.twitter.com/EhvOArWFZg

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) September 28, 2024

Creating a rule for T-bar

The T-bar is a commonly used tactic throughout football on special teams. When a kick is going to be a touchback, the returner will spread both of his arms out to create a “T” that notifies his teammates to hold up. However, some teams were using this as diversion last year.

It will be a penalty in 2025. Bret Bielema still has the best “T” signal. Shane Beamer is not a fan. Let this coaching rivalry live forever.

“I’m not gonna make a big deal about it,” Beamer said. “But I hate to see that something that was, it wasn’t trying to bend the rules, it wasn’t a rule, and it was something that, you know, we tried to take advantage of, and thinking the other team might stop running, and they did.”