Frank Martin fined by SEC for comments about officiating
BIRMINGHAM, AL (WOLO) — SEC commissioner Greg Sankey fined Gamecock basketball coach Frank Martin of $25,000 Monday morning for comments Martin made Saturday about an official.
After the loss to Florida Saturday, Martin directed comments to a specific official and voiced his displeasure with the officiating in the game.
The league issued a release Monday, saying Martin’s comments “serve to undermine the effectiveness and continuing enhancement of the SEC men’s basketball officiating program.
“Martin’s comments were made in violation of SEC Bylaw 10.5.4, which prohibits coaches, players and support personnel from all public criticism of officials and from making public any specific communications with the Conference office related to officiating.”
According to Sankey, “The Southeastern Conference membership has unanimously approved a bylaw prohibiting public criticism of officials. Frank Martin’s public comments violated the SEC Bylaw 10.5.4, which results in this reprimand and fine. The SEC staff and the SEC’s Coordinator of Men’s Basketball Officiating have worked diligently over the past two seasons to improve the overall quality of the Conference’s officiating program. Our coaches and administrators have been fully informed of our strategies for improvement, which include building relationships with other conferences to coordinate the assignment of officials outside of their primary assigning conference. We appreciate this collaboration among conferences and will continue to seekand support these officiating assignments and basketball officials.”
“Eleven years as head coach, I think today was my sixth technical foul in 11 years,” Martin said after Saturday’s loss. “I got a problem when our league office puts a guy on our game that got his break in the SEC and he turned his back on the SEC to go officiate the other leagues. Why are we hiring that official to officiate SEC games? That’s a problem.”
The Gamecocks face #18 Tennessee Tuesday night in Knoxville.
