Ole Miss AD Ross Bjork, Mississippi State John Cohen, you have a trip to Birmingham in your future. The principal wants to see you.
Following a chippy (to put it lightly) Egg Bowl that saw No. 18 Mississippi State beat Ole Miss 35-3 in Oxford and players and officials chirping at each other after the game, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is about ready to turn this car around and drive straight home with both sides of the Egg Bowl rivalry.
“It remains disappointing to have seen the unnecessary actions during and after the Mississippi State at Ole Miss game on Thursday night. These actions are unacceptable and my concern relates to the bigger issue of the repeated incidents before, during and after games between these football programs,” Sankey said in a statement. “These incidents have become too common in this series. I will require both athletics directors to meet with me at the SEC Office in the off-season to review past issues and develop a plan for the purpose of creating a healthier environment for this annual game.”
Here’s a taste of the action that transpired during the game.
They're handing out two pieces with a biscuit at the Egg Bowl pic.twitter.com/DQPOXYCZ3g
— CJ Fogler (@cjzer0) November 23, 2018
And after.
3/3 Joe Moorhead on the field after the game. "I'm the one trying to diffuse the situation, not their big mouth f------ AD" pic.twitter.com/nv7RDlM8oY
— Mike Sands (@Mike_Sands) November 23, 2018
Sankey also specifically called out two players from each team.
The SEC’s review of the in-game altercation determined that four players should have been called for flagrant personal foul penalties: #38 Johnathan Abram and #2 Jamal Peters of Mississippi State and #1 A.J. Brown and #2 Matt Corral of Ole Miss.
Of course, there is a ton of recent history here, where Mississippi State’s Leo Lewis narced on Ole Miss in an NCAA recruiting investigation, which led to discoveries, by a Mississippi State fan, that forced Hugh Freezeto resign.
And that’s just scratching the surface.