Nick Saban calls for a flopping penalty after Ole Miss antics during College GameDay

This is a tinge upsetting. One of the reasons why football will always be more popular in the United States of America over soccer is Americans really have no patience for the concept of flopping. It has become common place in soccer at all levels, and has increasingly made its way onto the hardwood with basketball. The worst part is that it might be making its way into college football. What a bummer.

During Saturday's edition of College GameDay, ESPN's Nick Saban had some thoughts on the idea of flopping or faking injuries. The team that is receiving the most flack for doing so of late is a former rival of his and one of his greatest proteges. That would be Lane Kiffin's Ole Miss Rebels. While he did not mention Ole Miss once in these series of quotes, he was aggressive in saying flopping is not okay.

Saban said coaches signaling to players to fake being hurt compromises the integrity of the game.

“This is the integrity of the game, and there’s no player that flops in a game that doesn’t get a signal from the coach to do it, to slow the game down. But you know, there’s a history to all this, because in the old days, you used to have to get up and run off the field if you got injured. I mean, I broke my leg and I had to run off the field.” 

This is all about slowing the game down while on defense to allow a team to otherwise substitute.

“If you get injured, stay down, stay down, don’t get up, because, you know, we can’t substitute fast enough, right? All right. So now people are taking advantage of this rule, but I think until there’s some penalty for doing it. And I know it’s a very sensitive subject for an official to make a determination about, is a player injured or not, but there should be a flop rule."

Saban argues that at the very least a player actively going down should result in a charged time out.

“And if a guy actually gets up, runs down, and then right before the play starts, he flops, maybe it should be a charged time out, you know, for that team, because it’s pretty obvious some of these situations where guys are flopping and they’re not injured.”

This probably should be the case as it is in the NFL. The problem is it becomes a judgement call.

“Yeah, I think there’s several solutions here, but it’s going to start with the coaches and the integrity of the game and I think we all should respect the integrity of the game because there’s so much passion for our game and so many people and so much fan interest. And when you hear people booing constantly because of this, that’s a problem.”

The NFL fixed the issue that became prevalent in the 1980s after the advent of the hurry-up offense.

Nick Saban calls for a penalty to be had for flopping in college football

I think with college football stopping the clock to move the chains late in games, flopping can be a little more obvious than in the NFL because of the rate of play. The advent of the two-minute timeout has been a positive step in some capacities already, as well as an opportunity to squeeze in one or two more ad spots in the latter stages of a half. With the game becoming more pro, let's follow suit.

Inside of a certain time threshold, an injured player on the field in the NFL game will result in a forced timeout. This has helped alleviate potential concerns for flopping for the most part in the NFL. It is not always the case, but losing the ability to call timeout one more time seems sufficient enough of a punishment to monkey around with faking an injury. I just do not know about the flopping penalty...

The last thing you will want in a major conference game is for the officials to make it about themselves. Imagine a 15-yard flopping penalty being implemented on a player where a defender is actually hurt. I don't think you can let the officials make a judgement call like that. It will ruin someone's season. That is why doing what the NFL has done with the timeouts is the way to go.

This is a tricky subject, but one that cannot allow teams on defense to make a mockery of the sport,