Report: NCAA bans fake QB slide

Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett busted out a one-of-a-kind move in Saturday's ACC championship, and that's not an exaggeration.

In the play, Pickett scrambled for a first down and, with two Wake Forest defenders closing in on him, began leaning back as if to slide. He then returned to an upright position, jetted past the confused defenders and raced untouched for a touchdown, opening the scoring in the Panthers' eventual 45-21 win. One can only assume he shouted "Sike!" at the Wake safety as he raced by.

According to Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports, NCAA rules secretary Steve Shaw updated the language to Rule 12-3-3, instructing referees to blow the play dead as soon as a ballcarrier begins motioning toward a feet-first slide.

"From a player safety standpoint, everybody is aware of the play now," Shaw told CBS. "We'll know [a fake] on the field when we see it, and we'll kill it."

The interpretation will go into effect immediately, beginning with tomorrow's Army-Navy game and FCS, Division II and Division III playoff games this weekend and continuing for the remainder of the season.

Really, the move had to be done. The fake slide, brilliant as it was for Pickett to pull it out of his back pocket out of nowhere, was a disaster in the making for defenders and quarterbacks alike. Defenders would have no choice but to attack sliding quarterbacks, lest they be fooled, and sliding quarterbacks would be at risk of taking shots from defenders wary of being faked out.

But, Newton's Third Law of Motion applies to the NCAA rule book: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. And so this well-intentioned rule is sure to make someone mad.

Moving forward, officials will be even more trigger happy to blow their whistles as soon as they judge a quarterback is even thinking about sliding, and when that happens the play will be dead instantly with no opportunity for review.

So, when some team is looking to convert a key third down late in a game, the quarterback takes off to run and officials blow the play dead thinking he was about to fake a slide when really he was just changing speeds in an attempt to juke a defender... don't blame the ref, blame Kenny Pickett.