The dollars aren't an issue. Meyer has $30K in his car's ash tray, and there's probably no shortage of boosters lining up to contribute towards the fine.
Based on Meyer's comments a suspension would have been completely overboard given Meyer's comments. The timing of the comments warranted some sort of punishment, but if Meyer gets suspended for what he said we may as well start making coaches sit out 3-4 games for making light of how bad SEC officials are.
As for handling these issues in private, Kiffin and the other coaches forced Slive's hand to make a public announcement. I have no problem with how he handled this situation.
