Slippery Slive Super Hero

Mike Slive, the affable, charismatic SEC commissioner finds himself in a quandary. His outspoken, brash, dangerous arch villain (apparently Slive fashions himself a superhero) Lane Kiffin recently pushed him over the edge. Slive said enough was enough.

In effect Lane tied the Commissioners hands. After all there can be no public criticism of sporting officials in the United States of America. Certainly not by coaches in a conference where each team will collect 17 million dollars per season in media contract rights.

In effect, the Commissioner said, ‘All this complaining by our coaches, lets keeps this in house and we will address all inquires in time to effectively do nothing and bring no public attention to it.’ In the words of many a football forum retort: FAIL.

Reprimand #2

So on October Slive send the following letter of reprimand to Kiffin:

Dear Coach Kiffin:

This is with regard to your post-game statements concerning the officiating in the Tennessee at Alabama football game played in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on October 24th, 2009.

The actions and statements constitute public criticism of officials, contrary to the provisions of Bylaw 10.5.4 of the Southeastern Conference Manual, which reads, “Coaches, players and support personnel shall refrain from all public criticism of officials.” It is your responsibility as a coach to comply with the policies of the Southeastern Conference and to know the football playing rules.

As a result of your comments, I’m sending you this letter of reprimand. This reprimand will be made public.

Since it is clear from your public comments that you believe this letter “mean(s) nothing”, let me be equally as clear to you. The next time you, or a member of your staff, make public comments of this nature, you will be suspended from all coaching duties for one or more games, and the institution may be subjected to a substantial fine. I also remind you that this is your second public reprimand in your brief tenure as Tennessee’s Head Football Coach and on both occasions you were wrong about the applicable rules.

Sincerely,

Michael Slive

Not that Lane was alone in his public reproval. He was among three SEC coaches who had lamented over calls in the last few weeks.

The Kiffin Rule

Then with unanimous agreement among SEC Athletic Director’s a new bylaw affectionately known as the Lane Kiffin Rule was evoked:

In an unanimous vote of the Southeastern Conference’s athletic directors and with the full support of the conference’s 12 Presidents and chancellors, all violations of SEC Bylaw 10.5.4 will be enforced by suspensions and fines, effective immediately.

The length of the suspension and the amount of the fine will be at the discretion of the commissioner.

SEC Bylaw 10.5.4 requires that coaches, assistant coaches, players, support personnel and others associated with the institution’s athletics program refrain from public criticism of officials.

Head coaches are advised that suspensions and fines for violations of bylaw 10.5.4 made by assistant coaches or other support personnel will be enforced against the head coach.

As is customary practice, the conference office will continue to address reviews of officiating calls on specific plays with each institution’s head coach and no public comments will be made concerning these communications.

The Hand of Justice

So now Slive will wax cold an equal hand of justice to all who would dare challenge him, err  the league rather.

Or will he? As irony or fate would have it, Florida coach Urban Meyer had a thought on Wednesday he wanted to share publicly. In reference to a hit on Tim Tebow during the Georgia game Meyer stated,

“That should have been a penalty, in my opinion, you’ve got to protect quarterbacks. That’s the whole purpose. It’s right in front of the referee.

Now that is a criticism. It’s directed at SEC officials. It was done so publicly. This would be a good time to recount Mike Slives’ words in conjunction with releasing Bylaw 10.5.4:

“On occasions 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. … For the foreseeable future there will be no reprimands. We will go right to suspensions and fines.”

Right, Mike?

Now maybe Meyer took the calculated risk and was deflecting attention away from Brandon Spikes eye gouging of a Bulldog. But rules are rules, right Mike?

We all know that whole conspiracy thing to get Alabama and Florida into the conference championship game is ludicrous, right?

You jumped to send Kiffin his first reprimand for accusing Meyer of breaking recruiting rules because it was just the correct thing to do, right?

When you signed off on the half-game suspension (it has now become a full game) of the aforementioned Spikes, that’s exactly how you would have handled it if Lane Kiffin had been involved, right?

What to do, What to do . . .

It’s not a good spot for Mike Slive or any superhero for that matter. If he is good on his word he has to act on this matter. Be it a fine or suspension. If he does nothing, he looks partial.

And being partial?  That’s akin to kryptonite for commissioners of big time college football conferences.