The University of Mississippi’s pockets just got lighter thanks to fan behavior in the Rebels’ blowout home loss to Georgia.
The Southeastern Conference announced Monday that Ole Miss will be penalized $250,000 for the interruption caused by fans throwing trash onto the field at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Shortly after Georgia scored its third touchdown of the game, Rebel fans grew irate. In the first few minutes of the second quarter, Ole Miss fans began throwing cans, bottles, and athletics-provided wristbands onto their own field.
After multiple announcements by the public address announcer urging fans to stop throwing debris, game officials stopped play with the Rebels down 21-0 early. Initially, this had the opposite intended effect, as fans began throwing trash in increased numbers.
Even when it settled down and play resumed, there were multiple times throughout the remainder of the game when either another Georgia score or a call that didn’t go the Rebels’ way led to more fans throwing trash.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey imposed the financial penalty under the conference’s sportsmanship, game management, and alcohol availability policies.
“The actions taken by the conference are consistent with SEC bylaws and commissioner’s regulations related to the availability of alcoholic beverages at athletics events, which state, ‘If cans or plastic bottles are used as projectiles or otherwise cause game management issues, the institution is subject to an immediate fine and suspension of the alcohol sales privilege,'” a statement from the SEC reads.
While the SEC has the right to strip Ole Miss of its alcohol sales privileges because of the incident, the conference said it is not doing so at this time, but it’s not out of the question in the future.