The SEC's had enough of the whining about the officials. The latest decree aims to end the endless complaining by coaches about bad calls, which seem to increase by the week. Should we just call this the "Kiffin Rule" from now on?This release just came across the e-mail today:
PENALTIES FOR SEC BYLAW 10.5.4 VIOLATIONS STRENGTHENED
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (Oct. 30, 2009) - In a unanimous vote of the Southeastern Conference’s Athletic Directors and with the full support of the Conference’s twelve Presidents and Chancellors, all violations of SEC Bylaw 10.5.4 will be enforced by suspensions and fines, effective immediately.
The length of the suspension and the amount of the fine will be at the discretion of the Commissioner.
SEC Bylaw 10.5.4 requires that coaches, assistant coaches, players, support personnel and others associated with the institution’s athletics program refrain from public criticism of officials.
Head coaches are advised that suspensions and fines for violations of Bylaw 10.5.4 made by assistant coaches or other support personnel will be enforced against the head coach.
“There are proper channels available for head coaches to use when communicating officiating concerns to the Conference office,” said SEC Commissioner Mike Slive.
As is customary practice, the conference office will continue to address reviews of officiating calls on specific plays with each institution’s head coach and no public comments will be made concerning these communications.
4 comments:
How sad!!! In ordinarily times, I would agree coaches should not publicly criticize the calls of game officials. However, in light of the some of the glaring miss calls, this rule sends the wrong message. SEC Commissioner Mike Slive mistakenly believes the public remarks of the coaches are somehow impugning his office or the integrity of the league officials. However, the coaches motivations is to point out a problem and send a message to the players and recruits the they “have their backs”
SEC football would be better served by Commissioner Slive announcing a comprehensive plan to strengthen and improve officiating and the AD’s to send a clear message they will protect the backs of the coaches first, forcing Slive to acknowledge and address the real problem.
That's true, but the SEC doesn't need this to be playing out in press conferences every week. It's tacky. And quite honestly, it's annoying. Everybody's a victim of a bad call, it seems. Nobody's ever at fault for losing a game.
I think this keeps the focus on the games at hand, and at least keeps the coaches from fueling the nut-job conspiracy theorists that are out there.
SEC refs have performed poorly this year plain and simple. Here's an idea: the conference with the highest paid coaches should also have the highest paid (and more importantly) most competent officiating staff! Make these guys professional refs...this should be the only job they have...there is way too much money on the line for amateur refs to be determining games.
Wow, sounds like Andy is bitter!
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