SEC Meetings: Day Two Wrap, Part One
May 28th, 2009 08:33 AM║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink ║ Tags: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
Yesterday was the day the hammer officially fell on the SEC’s talkative football coaches. Commissioner Mike Slive made it clear to the league’s coaches that he was far from pleased with the recent sniping and criticisms that have been flying back and forth from campus to campus.
When asked if the meeting turned into a converstation, Slive simply said, “I did all of the talking.”
With that, here’s our first wrap-up of yesterday’s news from the SEC Meetings:
“For the last five year, all the focus has been where it ought to be, how we were doing athletically,” Slive said. “Then all of a sudden, we were back at it, and that really annoyed me.”
Coaches who continue to attack their counterparts in the press will be subject to reprimands and fines.
One coach joked with ESPN.com’s Chris Low that, “Only a couple of us needed to hear it, but we all go slapped upside the head.”
Houston Nutt said, “It was awesome, he came with it today, he was really good. Mike Slive’s got real passion and he cares about our league. His bottomline was simple: We’re a team. I don’t think you’ll hear anything more from the coaches.”
While Nutt and some other coaches talked about the meeting, Lane Kiffin “bolted out the door and headed for the exit as soon” as the meeting ended according to Ron Higgins of The Memphis Commercial-Appeal.
In other news, the SEC is considering sponsoring a proposal to the NCAA that would cap the number of players a school could sign each year at 28.
Ole Miss signed 37 players last year. Nutt apologized for any embarrassment this might have caused, but he also stated that UM knew seven or eight of their players would not qualify.
“I was very concerned last year when we had one institution sign a lot of players, and that was the catalyst for these discussions,” Slive said. He also said he would be fine to make this an SEC-only rule. “The numbers are normally around the 28 to 30 range. It wouldn’t take you out of the current practice.”
