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SEC issues statement on controversial no-call, fans throwing trash during Texas-Georgia game
By Adam Spencer
Published:
SEC officials drew a lot of criticism for a controversial call during Saturday night’s Texas-Georgia game.
During the third quarter, Texas intercepted a Carson Beck pass. But there was a flag for pass interference. Fans booed and started throwing trash onto the field.
That led to a delay in the game, during which the officiating crew overruled the pass interference call. That seemingly set a dangerous precedent, as it appeared to many that Longhorn fans were rewarded for throwing debris onto the field with an overturned call.
The SEC office issued a statement on Sunday morning, explaining that the call was overruled via a legitimate discussion. The league also condemned throwing debris onto the playing field:
Statement from the SEC Office:
With 3:12 to play in the third quarter of the Georgia at Texas game, Texas intercepted a pass at the Texas 46-yard line and returned it to the Texas 9 yard line. Texas was flagged for committing defensive pass interference on the play which resulted in Georgia maintaining the ball with a first down.
The game officials gathered to discuss the play, which is permitted to ensure the proper penalty is enforced, at which time the calling official reported that he erred, and a foul should not have been called for defensive pass interference. Consequently, Texas was awarded the ball at the Texas 9 yard line.
While the original evaluation and assessment of the penalty was not properly executed, it is unacceptable to have debris thrown on the field at any time.
The disruption of the game due to debris being thrown onto the field will be reviewed by the Conference office related to SEC sportsmanship policies and procedures.
Will that statement be enough to stop this behavior from fans in future games? Probably not. The league is going to have to create some stiff penalties for fans throwing trash onto the field in order to prevent this from happening again.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
