SEC Announces Punishments for Tennessee Following Ole Miss Fiasco

The Southeastern Conference has reacted swiftly to impose punishments on those who were involved in Saturday night's embarrassment at the University of Tennesse. If you're not familiar with what happened. Let's just say Tennessee fans got a bit out of control following a frustrating call at the end of the football game with Ole Miss.

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The situation in itself was bad enough, the fact that it was played out on national television and then replayed, again and again, has spurred the Southeastern Conference to announce punishments in connection with the carnage.

The SEC announced yesterday that the University of Tennessee would be fined $250,000. That money will be taken from UT's portion of conference proceeds. In other words, it's a small drop in the bucket and is the monetary equivalent of a slap on the wrist.

In addition to the fine, the University of Tennessee will also have to review their security procedures, their alcohol procedures, and a lot of other game-day operational procedures so that such an event won't happen again.

Among those requirements, according to ESPN.com are:

• Be required to use all available resources, including security, stadium and television video, to identify individuals who threw objects onto the playing field or at the opposing team. All individuals identified as having been involved in disrupting the game shall be prohibited from attending Tennessee athletics events for the remainder of the 2021-22 academic and athletic year.

• Review and update its athletics department game management procedures and alcohol availability policies to prevent a recurrence of Saturday night's disruption, which shall include an evaluation of agreed-upon SEC sportsmanship, game management and alcohol policies to verify full compliance with existing standards.

• Following completion of this review and prior to Tennessee's next home football game, the university shall provide a report to the league office to summarize its efforts to identify and penalize offenders and its plan to enact policies to prevent future similar incidents while ensuring compliance with conference standards.

As you might imagine the punishment did not sit well with fans of Ol Rocky Top. Volunteer fans took to social media to decry the punishment and really sound very immature as they pleaded like a four-year-old to its mother.

Regardless, the SEC had to take firm and swift action because this situation was just one or two mishandled steps from becoming a full-blown riot with a lot more injuries and arrests. According to reports, 18 people were arrested on Saturday night and 47 others were ejected from the game. The actions taken by the Conference should also serve as stern warnings to other fan bases too.

Ole Miss won the game, by the way, 31 to 26. The next action for the Rebels will be this Saturday when they host LSU. Tennessee will now fall directly from the frying pan into the fire as their next opponent is Alabama.