Ah, to be a conference office, where you can say a coach was in the right in his criticism of your league's officiating and punish him anyway.
The SEC on Monday announced that play should have stopped in the crucial kickoff that turned Auburn's win over Ole Miss; the league did not specifically state the call should have been reversed, instead admonishing the officials for not bringing in replay to take a closer look.
On the kickoff return in the Auburn at Ole Miss football game at 5:43 in the 4th quarter, the SEC has determined the replay official should have stopped the game for further review of the play. In the football officiating replay process every play is reviewed but, when appropriate, the game is stopped for further review.
Because the play was not appropriately stopped for further review, the necessary slow-motion view of the play was not viewed by the replay official to determine if the ruling on the field should have been reversed.
It was the second replay-aided win in three weeks for Auburn, who was the beneficiary of an early whistle that negated a late Arkansas fumble recovery.
“I don’t know why," Lane Kiffin said after the game. "I asked why on a critical play like that would you not stop. And they said, ‘Well, someone looked at it upstairs and said he didn’t touch it.’ It looked like from our vantage point he did touch it.”
The SEC slapped a $25,000 fine on Kiffin, specifically citing his use of social media to criticize conference officiating. "Mr. Kiffin's use of social media Saturday following the game to publicly criticize officiating is in violation of Conference Bylaws and Commissioner's Regulations that govern Sportsmanship and communication with the Conference Office on officiating issues," the release said.
Oddly enough, Kiffin broke the news of his fine on social media.
Presumably he won't be fined for that as well.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.