SEC, Slive to bypass reprimands, go straight to fines, suspensions

:"On rare occasions over the last seven years there were several private reprimands and that took care of the matter," said Slive, in his eighth year as the SEC's leader. "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 and the conference athletic directors and university presidents unanimously agreed.

"For the foreseeable future there will be no reprimands," Slive added. "We will go right to suspensions and fines."

over 2 years ago Will Shelton 19 comments 0 recs |

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Somehow, this is no surprise.

But when even Dan Mullen is openly criticizing officials, just maybe it’s worth sorting the symptoms from the problems.

by David Hooper on Oct 30, 2009 1:17 PM EDT reply actions

For rills.

________________________________
I will give my shirt for Tennessee today.

by Holly Anderson on Oct 30, 2009 1:36 PM EDT up reply actions

To be honest

every coach needs to stop whining about the officiating. Referees have sucked forever. It’s a scientific fact. If coaches are going to go to the media first instead of the league office, then the league office is going to do the same. Can’t say I blame them.

by HarveyBirdmanAAL on Oct 30, 2009 2:21 PM EDT up reply actions

Dumb

Here’s a novel idea Mr. Slive: If you don’t want coaches to criticize officials, how about you just have officials do the job for which they’re hired. Problem fixed.

Gag orders for coaches is not a valid solution for a systematic problem. Easy fix? Sure. But it’ll ultimately undermine the credibility of the best league in the land.

by Aerobab on Oct 30, 2009 9:34 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

+1 Succinct and accurate.

by memphispete on Oct 30, 2009 9:35 PM EDT up reply actions

I would love to see the league office's Thanksgiving dinner

The turkey would be dry.

Kiffin would say the turkey was dry.

Slive would tell Kiffin if he mentions the dry turkey again he’ll be asked to leave.

"Florida didnt win their first SEC title until 1991 and now they think they invented football."
-Ron Zook

by rustytanton on Oct 30, 2009 1:29 PM EDT reply actions

not any more....

Now he’s outta there on the first mention of the turkey’s dryness.

"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." A. Bartlett Giamatti

by sddbaker on Oct 30, 2009 2:27 PM EDT up reply actions

How Absurd...

I love how coaches live with HUGE amounts of criticism, but they can’t be upset and criticize the referees who may very well have cost them a game. I agree that excessively criticizing officials would become old, but I don’t agree with taking away a coaches freedom of speech.

Slive needs to be replaced in my opinion.

by KnoxVegas on Oct 30, 2009 3:18 PM EDT via mobile reply actions

I don't think

this quite rises to the level of a free speech issue.

by HarveyBirdmanAAL on Oct 30, 2009 3:47 PM EDT up reply actions

It's not a free speech issue, but that doesn't that Slive handled this well.

Shutting down coaches is not going to have any impact on whether people think the referees messed up. We have TVs. We watch the games. We have the calls on replay, and ESPN is more than happy to show off the sketchy cally.

I’m all for a policy of aggressive restraint with officials; insinuations that a league is on the fix is the one thing that all sports leagues fear the most, and the weak link is a dirty official. So the league has to take care to protect the images of their officials (within reason). But to have the SEC commissioner forbid coaches from discussing publicly the exact same things that the SEC commissioner himself has discussed publicly is, at best, amateurish. One thing our society hates is hypocrisy, and that comes off like it.

by David Hooper on Oct 30, 2009 4:35 PM EDT up reply actions

I see your point here.

And I agree to an extent. The only thing I would disagree about is that this seems amateurish. Slive (like it or not) is the head of the league, not the coaches. They can complain to him, and he will make the complaint public if it needs to be made public. If Slive doesn’t demand some control over the coaches, then they will run the league, not him.

by HarveyBirdmanAAL on Oct 30, 2009 4:46 PM EDT up reply actions

That part is subjective.

I’d be surprised if everybody was in agreement on that.

He does need to exert some control over the coaches, for sure. Of that there is no argument.

by David Hooper on Oct 30, 2009 5:40 PM EDT up reply actions

I agree

I don’t think coaches should verbally attack officials themselves, but they should be given an opprotunity to dispute calls and respond to media questions about the questionable calls.

I just don’t see how you can prohibit somebody from talking about certain things like that, especially when you have already addressed it yourself and punished a refree crew

by KnoxVegas on Oct 30, 2009 4:54 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

I wonder

how conscious Slive is of the Tim Donaghy stuff that’s getting out there? Because this is not a healthy time to be an official in just about any sport.

Rocky Top Talk

by Will Shelton on Oct 30, 2009 5:26 PM EDT up reply actions

We might as well just say good-bye to press conferences too

whats the point? if you’re going to ask coaches questions like these, let them answer, otherwise lets just do away with the whole puppet show

RIP Steve McNair (1973 - 2009) Retire #9!
Member of the Committee to Keep Keith Bulluck.
Eric Berry for Heisman!!

by Pride of the Southland on Oct 30, 2009 6:07 PM EDT reply actions

I was thinking that, too.

The tighter the rules, the blander the responses. You know that journos are going to ask coaches about officiating, and that coaches will decline to respond. That’ll account for 10-20% of postgames for a while (depending on how long the postgames last), and we already know the script.

by David Hooper on Oct 30, 2009 6:09 PM EDT up reply actions

I say let the head official have a press conf

Let him air it out, explain himself, or rap philosophically. People just want answers

RIP Steve McNair (1973 - 2009) Retire #9!
Member of the Committee to Keep Keith Bulluck.
Eric Berry for Heisman!!

by Pride of the Southland on Oct 30, 2009 6:17 PM EDT up reply actions

But what if it's in free verse?

I mean, I wouldn’t really want coaches rapping. That’s why we have Lil’ Wayne to handle that stuff.

Eric Berry for sending the guy who wins the Heisman spinning 720 degrees in the air at the podium - or for intercepting it and returning it to where it rightfully belongs

by Chris Pendley on Oct 30, 2009 7:06 PM EDT up reply actions