NCAA Reportedly Bans ‘Fake Slide’ Move After Kenny Pickett Uses It to Win ACC Championship Game

The NCAA in a recent statement announced that they are banning the fake slide move that Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett executed to score a touchdown during the ACC championship game this Saturday.

Referees should interpret a fake slide as a player surrendering himself and halt the play, according to a message from NCAA national coordinator of officials Steve Shaw.

NCAA bans the Kenny Pickett fake slide move

“Any time a ball carrier begins, simulates, or fakes a feet-first slide, the ball should be declared dead by the on-field officials at that point,” the memo states. “The intent of the rule is player safety, and the objective is to give a ball carrier an option to end the play by sliding feet first and to avoid contact.”

“To allow the ball carrier to fake a slide would compromise the defense that is being instructed to let up when the ball carrier slides feet first.” The memo further stated that the play thus made is not reviewable.

During Pitt’s 45-21 ACC title win over Wake Forest, quarterback Pickett used a fake slide to immobilize the defenders to make a 58-yard touchdown run through them in his first possession of the ball.

“I just kind of started slowing down and pulling up and getting ready to slide, and I just kind of saw their body language and they just pulled up as well,” Pickett said. “… I have never done that before. I just kind of kept going after I initially started to slide.”

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Steve Shaw speaks about the necessary modifications

In an email to The Associated Press, Steve Shaw stated that a rule modification was not needed and that no new regulation was introduced. The adjustment is a reinterpretation of the existing rules for when a play should be called dead.

“I know people think the rule book covers every imaginable scenario, but it does not,” Shaw wrote. “In a season I will typically have one, two or maybe three of what we call play interpretations.”

The questionable rule was brought to light by the Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson following his Saturday’s loss, which cost him the ACC Championship. He emphasized that the league needed to review whether such a move is even legal.

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