SEC reprimands are not a remedy for bad officiating

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The Southeastern Conference has taken decisive action to correct some obvious problems with the officials who oversee its football games, including removing one entire officiating crew from the schedule.

But at the same time, SEC Commissioner Mike Slive has gone overboard enforcing “SEC Bylaw 10.5.4,” which, as Slive never tires of pointing out: “clearly states that coaches, players and support personnel shall refrain from all public criticism of officials.”

Already this season, Slive has issued public reprimands to three football coaches — Lane Kiffin of Tennessee, Dan Mullen of Mississippi State and Bobby Petrino of Arkansas — for their critical comments concerning officiating.

Yet as the SEC’s own action verifies, some if not all of those coaches’ comments are justified. And these reprimands are certainly not a remedy for bad officiating.

SEC coaches should not have to simmer in silence or run the risk of a reprimand — or more serious repercussions — when their teams are subjected to bad officiating.

This season’s seemingly unprecedented stint of bad officiating has shown what a bad bylaw 10.5.4 is.

The SEC should discard it, and encourage constructive feedback from its coaches.

As Slive himself has said, “Our institutions expect the highest level of officiating in all of our sports ….”

This spate of bad officiating, including the apparent failure of replay officials to correct those errors, has been an embarrassment. The league’s emphasis on punishing coaches who are understandably frustrated by the bad calls only compounds the problem.

The remedy for the problem is for the officials to get the calls right.

The league’s energies should be directed toward improving the quality of officiating, not in silencing coaches who are stating the obvious, and whose jobs are jeopardized by game-changing calls.

The editorial above represents the views of the Sun Herald editorial board, which consists of President-Publisher Glen Nardi, Vice President and Executive Editor Stan Tiner, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Flora S. Point, Opinion Page Editor B. Marie Harris and Associate Editor Tony Biffle.