Coaches could be fined or suspended

From the Halloween online edition of the Memphis Commercial Appeal:
SEC to crack down on complainers

Publicly griping about officials in the Southeastern Conference just got a lot more costly for Lane Kiffin and the rest of the league’s coaches.

After three SEC coaches in two weeks, including Tennessee’s Kiffin, received reprimands for ripping officials, the conference has decided that future punishment for similar antics will be fines and suspensions.

A memorandum was sent by the league office on Friday to every school making them aware of the change, which is effective immediately.

Commissioner Mike Slive, in his eighth season with the conference, was given full discretion by the league’s athletic directors and presidents to hand out the punishment.

He will determine the amount of fines and lengths of suspensions on a case-by-case basis.

“On rare occasions over the last seven years there were several private reprimands and that took care of the matter,” Slive told the AP in a telephone interview. “On occasion there were public reprimands and that took care of it. It became clear to me after last week that I was no longer interested in reprimands.

“We will go right to suspensions and fines.”

 

Ok, here's my opinion on SEC officiating.

Mike Slive ought to take a hint. Coaches are complaining about SEC officiating because there's plenty to complain about and I'm not talking just about LSU games. I watch games from other Conferences, mostly Big 12 but others too and SEC officiating is the worst and it's every game and every week.

Commisioner Slive should be the one reprimanded. He is letting incompetent officiating drag the SEC down.

OK, I'm ready for my reprimand.

 

Yea, but if Kiffin can't keep his mouth shut - more likely than not- Tennessee will have at least one game with Coach Oh No at the helm and that would be entertaining.

 

A little more work on the quality of officials and a little less fines would do the trick. The officiating, generally, is not up to the quality of the product.

 

Got to quiet the masses while the officials help Fla and bama get to the SEC Championship game undefeated. If one of them loses, even with the refs help, Lord help the one loss team in the championship game.

 

Comish brought a lot of this on himself by public suspending that one ref crew. I think coaches took this as an open door to complain. Slive is now trying to close that door.

And I don't think SEC refs are purposefully making calls in support of any team. I do take exception to flag happy refs that try to over control a game but I do not think this trait is isolated to any one conference. In rivalry games (of which the SEC has a lot) I'm sure the refs read the same papers everyone else reads and that they understand tensions are hyped. I think some refs feel they have to try and control those emotions with a tightly called game. I'm not in favor of this but calling it loose could also result in disaster.

It's a hard, thankless job.

 

I read this as...

From the SEC office:
"We are terrible at officiating. We look even worse when our own conference coaches are correctly pointing it our flaws. Since our officials are inept, and we can't seem to fix the problem, we are going to punish anyone that draws attention to it."

 

Well they blew another one already in the Ole Miss Auburn game. Tipped ball caught by OM defender. Ruled INT. Ball never touched the ground so the call was right. Replays confirmed IMO but at worst were totally inconclusive. Ruling overturned saying the ball touched the ground. NO F'N WAY.

 

I thought it was a good reversal. one angle showed the ball touch the ground. The other replays showed a 200lb plus player falling on top of the ball that was one inch from the ground...and the player bounced up from on top of that ball. Either way, it was a very close call.

but...

I do think that the reason we have such poor officiating in the SEC is because the commissioner, Slive, has habitually backed up the officials for so many years no matter how bad the officiating is. They operate with absolutely no consequences or repercussions. There is no incentive at all to perform because their performance, good or bad is immaterial to them keeping their job. I almost fell out of my chair when I read that a whole crew was put on suspension. That had to be a first.

How long has Slive been in charge of officiating? Has that been the first time that any official was reprimanded? Has the office ever admitted it blew a call?

By the way, not many of you know this about me, but I used to be a professional tennis referee. We made bad calls, got over ruled, and sometimes got removed during matches. We lived with immediate repercussions if our performance was suspect.

 

Florida and Bama should both have losses right now if it wasn't for terrible officiating. Mike Slive should be reprimanded.