Texas A&M Fined $50K, HC Mike Elko Reprimanded After Player Faked Injury vs. Arkansas

The SEC fined No. 3 Texas A&M $50,000 and publicly reprimanded head coach Mike Elko after determining that cornerback Tyreek Chappell feigned an injury with 12:55 remaining in the fourth quarter of Saturday's 45-42 win over Arkansas.

The university responded to the ruling with the following statement:

The SEC offered the following reasoning for its ruling:

"After the ball is spotted by officials, No. 7 for Texas A&M goes to the ground, creating the appearance of an injury. Just prior to the player going down, a Texas A&M staff member can be seen in the video standing in the team area near the 25-yard line signaling demonstratively to the player, pointing to the ground. It was noted that the Texas A&M player had no contact during the play and returned to the game on the second play of the ensuing defensive possession. As determined by the National Coordinator, the action by player, especially with the concurrent action by the coach in the team area, is a clear attempt to gain an unmerited advantage by stopping the game to be awarded an injury time out. The action violates the spirit of the injury timeout and fair play and was conducted in a manner that appears to attempt to circumvent the NCAA's injury time out rule to avoid the team being charged a time out."

A second violation of the rules regarding feigned injuries would incur a $100,000 fine to the school and another public reprimand. Any violations beyond that would result in a one-game suspension for Elko.

The SEC put the feigned injury rules into effect in 2022, and last November commissioner Greg Sankey reportedly sent a memo to the schools instructing them to "stop any and all activity related to faking injuries to create timeouts," adding "play football and stop the feigned injury nonsense."