The Southeastern Conference (SEC) fined UM head coach Lane Kiffin $25,000 on Monday for his critical retweets regarding a controversial kickoff play during the 35-28 loss to Auburn last weekend.
Officials released a statement that admitted to the mistake of not fully reviewing the kickoff return that seemed to touch Auburn’s return man Shaun Shivers before falling into the endzone where Ole Miss’s Tylan Knight fell on top of it. The Rebels led the Tigers 28-27 at the time of the controversial kickoff, and the touchdown would have put the Rebels in the perfect place to win the game with 5:43 minutes left in the game.
“The SEC Office conducted a review of the play and appropriately communicated its findings above to Ole Miss head football coach Lane Kiffin and other athletics department personnel per conference protocol,” the statement said. “However, 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.”
Kiffin is being fined for retweeting a tweet made by Breck Jones that said, “Y’all are a disgrace @SEC your officiating is absolutely atrocious. @SECOfficiating If y’all want to keep gifting Auburn wins, just say it.”
Kiffin said he did not retweet the tweet for the comments made about the officiators, but for the replay video that accompanied it. The response from Kiffin is getting much attention after he jokingly retweeted another tweet that jokes about the SEC admitting it was wrong but still fining the coach $25,000.
Kiffin has taken to Twitter throughout the week to continue joking about the fine. He has joked that his son Knox is worried about his college fund. In addition to these, Kiffin has alluded that he will pay the fine solely with pennies.
$25,000 equals 2.5 million pennies.
Since the announcement of the fine and Kiffin’s jokes, many fans in Oxford and beyond have begun collecting pennies to help with Kiffin’s fine
