SEC won’t punish Texas opponents using ‘horns down’ gesture

DALLAS — Texas arrived for its first appearance at SEC Media Day on Wednesday, but an old Longhorns storyline preceded them the day before.

SEC coordinator of officials John McDaid was asked if “horns down,” the taunting gesture employed by Texas’ opponents, would be a penalty as it often was in the Big 12, where it fell under the definition of unsportsmanlike conduct.

As for the SEC, it doesn’t pass the stool test.

“The act itself needs to be offensive to the senses,” says McDaid. “If you took that out of a football stadium and did it in a shopping mall or a grocery store, would that hurt the feelings of most reasonable people in the area? That signal wouldn’t. You might have people who share that signal with you. If you do it in a grocery store or in a shopping mall, we’ll put it into context depending on where you are.”

The Longhorns haven’t officially backed off any of the “Horns Down” talks in recent years. In January, Texas basketball coach Rodney Terry apologized after taking heat and calling UCF players “classless” after they taunted Texas players with signs after the game. But football coach Steve Sarkisian leans toward hostility, saying his team’s mantra last year was “embrace the hate.” Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte said he considers the gesture a compliment to the opponent’s mindset.

And with all the new opponents — including rekindled rivalries with Texas A&M and Arkansas — they’ll see a lot more of it. McDaid said he hasn’t heard anything from Texas about it, and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said Monday that any questions about Texas’ past influence in conference boardrooms is a non-issue.

“(Texas and Oklahoma) are now part of a conference with peer athletic programs and peer universities, so they will fit, and we will fit together, 16,” Sankey said.

On Tuesday, Oklahoma safety Billy Bowman Jr. said he wasn’t sure what the big deal was about the issue.

“It shouldn’t be a penalty anyway,” Bowman said. “Everybody has a hand signal. If you let a hand signal affect you and affect the game, maybe you shouldn’t be there.”

So it seems the issue has been settled with the SEC.

“It’s not foul play, it’s not game-changing, it’s not affecting our ability to run the game,” McDaid said.