CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) – The Atlantic Coast Conference is issuing an institutional fine ($25,000) and public reprimand to Syracuse University for actions by its football team during its game at Clemson on September 20. 

With 9:25 remaining in the fourth quarter, Syracuse violated NCAA Football Rule 3-3-6-b, which addresses the feigning of injuries by players, declaring it “unethical and contrary to the spirit of the rules.” 

The actions by the two players – especially with the concurrent action by the coach in the team area – were a clear attempt to gain an unmerited advantage by stopping the game in order to secure an injury timeout.

In addition to review by the league office, the play was also reviewed by the National Coordinator of Football Officials. He also 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. 

The funds from the imposed institutional fine – which are the maximum allowed by the league’s bylaws – will be placed into the Weaver-James-Corrigan-Swofford Postgraduate Scholarship account. 

The ACC considers this matter closed. 

Klubnik complained following the game about Syracuse faking injuries.

“We were doing it really all throughout the game,” Klubnik said of the tempo offense. “We were playing with tempo. Props to them. They stopped us on some third downs at certain times, and then they’d have an injury or something like that when we really got going.”

Klubnik added it’s “up to them if they wanna be honest about that.”

“But that was definitely tough for us to really get in a rhythm, when we’re playing fast and then unfortunately they’d have a guy get hurt or something, or a timeout or something like that,” he said. “So, I feel like we came out really healthy, and hopefully they did too.”