Big 12 Media Days: League Cracking Down on Celebrations, But 'Horns Down' Isn't Dead Yet

Coordinator of Officials Greg Burks said it will be a point of emphasis to have stricter rules in place for unsportsmanlike celebrations.

ARLINGTON, TX — Big 12 Coordinator of Officials Greg Burks met with the media Thursday to open up Day 2 of Big 12 Media Days to discuss the newest rule changes ahead of the 2021 college football season.

One element that caught drew attention was Burks noting that this upcoming season will include a point of emphasis to crackdown on unsportsmanlike celebrations that would be deemed as taunting.

“It seems that every year we talk about unsportsmanlike conduct,” Burks said. “It’s always an area that needs to be addressed. And what we are really going to be focusing on this year is taunting an opponent.

“We’re not going to allow players to taunt an opponent. We have worked really hard on celebration issues. We tell players to find a teammate to celebrate with, it’s not about you, it’s about the team. I think we’re doing a pretty good job in that area. But, we are not going to allow a player to stand over another player and point in that player’s face or to humiliate another opponent.”

The fun police will be out in full force in 2021 as the tolerance for celebrations is going the opposite direction of that in other sports — see Major League Baseball.

Naturally, the first thing that popped into the minds of many after the comments from Burks was what that meant for the “Horns Down” celebration done by teams, especially Oklahoma, in an attempt to taunt the “Hook ‘em Horns” that Texas players and fans display.

Spencer Rattler and Charleston Rambo :: Ty Russell / OU Athletics

Somewhat surprisingly, the anti-Longhorns celebration isn’t dead just yet.

“Let me put it this way, if you do ‘horns down’ to a Texas player, as an opponent, that’s probably going to be a foul,” Burks said. “If you turn to your crowd and do a ‘horns down,’ you’re not taunting an individual or an opponent so it probably won’t be a foul.

“Please all of you note, that I said probably. We have to consider intent. And we have to consider situation. And so those judgements I will leave to our individual officials.”

Sooner fans everywhere can rejoice.

Essentially, while the Big 12 is trying to trim down on taunting celebrations, the “Horns Down” that many fans and players love to do is not eliminated entirely just yet. It will be up to the discretion of the officials on the field to determine the intent, which certainly could get murky, but it is not a zero tolerance policy.

So while time will tell on how the new rule/emphasis on limiting on celebrations will be enforced, it appears that for the time being Texas will have to suffer through the taunt moving forward.

Burks also made the interesting note that bands and video boards could invoke an unsportsmanlike penalty as well, another change to how the game will be governed.

“There was nothing in the rule book that talked about video boards, bands,” Burks said. “Video, audio, light system operators will not create any noise or distraction.”

Burks later noted Oklahoma State filling their video board with yellow lines right behind the field goal posts as an example of this level of unsportsmanlike conduct.

This is another area that will, seemingly, be largely left up to the discretion of the on-field officials throughout the season. But, it seems pretty clear what sort of things will no longer be allowed regarding video boards and lights having anything that attempts to distract the opposing team.

Despite that extra added wrinkle to take more taunting out of the game, the “Horns Down” celebration lives to see another day — at least for now.