The SEC Invokes The "Lane Kiffin Rule" To Silence Tennessee's Head Coach

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The SEC commissioner, Mike Slive, has been forced to issue a statement basically saying; Lane Kiffin, either shut up or you may be watching your next Tennessee football game on television!

The statement was issued on Oct. 30, 2009 and will most likely be dubbed the "Lane Kiffin Rule" by the media in honor of Tennessee's loose canon head coach's inability to keep his mouth shut as far as criticizing SEC Officials, fellow coaches, and the SEC's front office.

Kiffin has even gone as far as to criticize a Florida High School, its coach and even one recruit's grandmother for talking him out of signing with Tennessee last spring. He once told a recruit from South Carolina that he would be pumping gas the rest of his life if he didn't sign with Tennessee.

Since Kiffin arrived in Knoxville, Tennessee back on Dec. 1, 2008 he has been in and out of Mike Slive's doghouse numerous times. But it was last week's comments after the Alabama game that finally pushed the SEC Commissioner to make this drastic move in order to put a muzzle on the Vols' Head Coach.

In statements made on his post game football show, Kiffin stated several times he felt as though the SEC officials were helping Alabama by penalizing Tennessee and by not penalizing Alabama.

He also said that Terrence Cody should have received a penalty for removing his helmet after his dramatic block of Tennessee's desperate field goal attempt in the final seconds of the game and that Tennessee should have been allowed a second kick.

That has been proven to not be the case as stated by the head of officials, Charles Bloom, "The foul for taking helmet off is a live ball foul treated as a dead-ball foul," Bloom wrote in an e-mail Saturday night to SportsIllustrated.com. "That is, if it happens on a play where time does not expire then the penalty is enforced on the following play. However since the clock ran out on that play, then there is no next play, so there is no penalty to mark off."

Kiffin also said he would have attempted to move the ball closer before attempting the kick, but he didn't want to put the game in the hands of the officials by giving them a chance to throw another magic flag on Tennessee.

The statement from Slive and the SEC office went as follows;

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.

"There are proper channels available for head coaches to use when communicating officiating concerns to the conference office," said SEC commissioner Mike Slive.

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.

There is no doubt who this is directed at and I believe the SEC front office believes that if they do not put a muzzle on Lane Kiffin, this situation will get out of control.

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