ACC Fines Syracuse for Faking Injuries During Upset Win vs. Dabo Swinney, Clemson

Syracuse was riding high after its 34-21 upset win over Clemson on Saturday, but the team was quickly knocked back down to earth.

The ACC announced on Monday that Syracuse has been fined $25,000 in a "public reprimand" for faking injuries during Saturday's game.

The ACC stated that the Orange committed the infraction with 9:25 left in the fourth quarter and violated NCAA Football Rule 3-3-6-b, which declares that it is "unethical and contrary to the spirit of the rules" for players to feign injury. Syracuse head coach Fran Brown was also criticized for his involvement in the incident.

"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," the ACC stated.

The play was reviewed both by the ACC and the National Coordinator of Football Officials, the latter of whom "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 $25,000 fine is the maximum penalty allowed by the ACC's bylaws. Once paid by Syracuse, the funds will be donated to the Weaver-James-Corrigan-Swofford Postgraduate Scholarship account.

Syracuse improved to 3-1 this season while Clemson fell to 1-3, marking the team's worst start under head coach Dabo Swinney. In addition to faking injuries, the Orange suffered a devastating loss as quarterback Steve Angeli will miss the remainder of the season after tearing his Achilles, per ESPN's Pete Thamel.

Syracuse will be seeking its fourth straight win when it faces Duke (2-2) on Saturday.