SEC won’t treat ‘Horns Down’ gesture as automatic unsportsmanlike penalty, coordinator of officials says

With Texas heading to the SEC in 2024, the SEC’s coordinator of officialsJohn McDaid, mentioned that the “Horns Down” gesture is not going to be an computerized penalty when the Longhorns be a part of the convention.

Per McDaid, the gesture, used as a taunt by opposing followers and gamers, will likely be assessed on a case-by-case foundation.

“Unsportsmanlike conduct wants to suit certainly one of three classes: Is it taunting an opponent? Is it making a travesty of the sport? Is it in any other case compromising our capability to handle the sport? There’s a distinction between a participant giving a sign immediately in (the) face of an opponent, versus doing it with teammates celebrating after a landing or on the sideline,” McDaid instructed Motion Community at SEC Media Days.

“To internet all that out, each single incidence will not be an act of unsportsmanlike conduct.”

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McDaid mentioned the identical guidelines will apply to different team-specific gestures, such because the “Gator Chomp” and “Land Shark” alerts.

The “Horns Down” gesture has been a subject of controversy over the past a number of years because the Big 12 has usually referred to as unsportsmanlike penalties on opposing gamers who flashed the signal throughout video games.

Massive 12 director of officiating Greg Burks addressed the gesture finally yr’s Big 12 Media Dayssaying it could be a judgment name by officers.

Dante Stills of the West Virginia Mountaineers celebrates with the “Horns Down” sign after the sport in opposition to the Texas Longhorns at Darrell Okay Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas, on Nov. 3, 2018. (Tim Warner/Getty Photos)

“Let me be very clear with ‘Horns Down,'” Burks mentioned in July 2022, in response to ESPN. “I’ve no possession on this image. This image is similar as all different alerts. It is once you do it, who you do it to and which method you do it.”

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Final season, Alabama head coach Nick Saban was visibly upset with certainly one of his gamers following a win over Texas in Week 2.

As Saban was working to midfield to shake palms with Texas head coach Steve Sarkisiancameras caught the seven-time nationwide champion yelling towards his gamers.

Saban was telling a participant to cease flashing the “Horns Down” signal following the victory.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban appears on previous to the sport in opposition to Texas at Darrell Okay Royal Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas, on Sept. 10, 2022. (Greg Nelson/Sports activities Illustrated through Getty Photos)

“I instructed our gamers, ‘We’re not doing this,’” Saban mentioned on his weekly radio look whereas displaying the “Horns Down” gesture. “Don’t do it. It’s not elegant. We don’t must degrade the opposite crew’s traditions. Simply go play.”

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“It’s the identical method in all of the issues that you simply do,” Saban continued. “You make selections and choices, whether or not it’s in class, as an individual, as a participant. And each time you assume you’re not doing the correct factor, and most of the people who don’t do the correct factor understand it’s not the correct factor earlier than they do it, they only do it anyway. So, don’t do this stuff. We have to have that as a motto. And perhaps that can assist the self-discipline.”

Texas and Alabama are set to face off in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in Week 2 of the 2023 college football season.