The Southeastern Conference has ruled that Texas Longhorns opponents won’t be penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct for throwing the “Horns Down” symbol. The SEC’s ruling on the controversial gesture runs counter to the Big 12’s effort to minimize it.
“The act itself needs to be offending to the senses,” SEC coordinator of officials John McDaid, per ESPN. “If you took that act out of a football stadium and did it in a shopping mall or a grocery store, would it offend the senses to a majority of the reasonable people in the area? That signal would not.