SEC football official on how Horns Down penalty will work in 2024

Where things stand in the SEC regarding the so-called "Horns Down" gesture and how it will be enforced as a penalty, and how it won't be, in the 2024 college football season and beyond.

How the SEC will handle the Horns Down gesture as a penalty, or not, during football games going forward. / Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

Just showing the "Horns Down" gesture will not itself count as a penalty in SEC football games going forward as the Texas Longhorns join the conference this year, an official confirmed.

SEC coordinator of officials John McDaid explained the league's approach to punishing opposing players showing the derisory symbol, an inversion of Texas fans' "Horns Up" gesture when speaking at SEC Media Days.

"We're going to read the context in which it's done," McDaid said. "I ask my officials to use the judgment of, is it taunting an opponent, is it making a travesty of the game, or is it otherwise affecting our ability to manage the game?"

McDaid said that if players show the upside-down horns gesture while celebrating with teammates away from their opponents, then it will likely not draw a flag.

"If he tackles a player and stands over him and gives it, then we've got taunting, then we've got unsportsmanlike conduct," McDaid said.

Horns Down is a reversal of the well-known "Hook 'em Horns" hand gesture used by Texas fans, where you hold your ring and middle fingers down while extending your index and pinkie fingers up.

The original sign, which reputedly dates back to the 1950s after being coined by Texas student Henry Pitts, resembles a Longhorn steer, the well-known mascot of Texas football.

"Horns Down" is meant to be a disrespectful inversion of the sign made by rivals, when you bend your wrist downward so that the "horns" aim down instead of up.

Conversation around the Horns Down has been a staple of talk in the Big 12 for years, and it was expected to be again as Texas joins the SEC along with rival Oklahoma, whose players and fans have liberally used the gesture to Longhorn fans' annoyance.

And, judging by McDaid's comments, they will still be able to, but only in certain circumstances.

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