SEC official makes 'Horns Down' penalty decision as college football season nears

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SEC coordinator of officials John McDaid made it official this week.

The "Horns Down" taunt will not result in an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for teams in the conference. The celebration is directed at Texas Longhorns players across all sports, but mostly in football. 

The taunt was a penalty while the school was in the Big 12 Conference but McDaid changed course.

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A Texas Longhorns helmet sits on the sidelines during the Big 12 Championship game between the Texas Longhorns and the Oklahoma State Cowboys on December 2, 2023, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX. (Chris Leduc/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

"The act itself needs to be offending to the senses," he said, via the Austin American-Statesman. "If you took that act out of a football stadium and did it in a shopping mall or a grocery store, would it offend the senses to a majority of the reasonable people in the area? That signal would not. 

"You might have some people that share that signal with you, if you did that at a grocery store or a shopping mall, depending where you are. We're going to evaluate it in context."

In 2021, Big 12 Conference officials determined that the mocking move to taunt Texas players would bring a penalty.

Dante Stills, #55 of the West Virginia Mountaineers, celebrates with the Horns Down signal after the game against the Texas Longhorns at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on November 3, 2018, in Austin, Texas.  (Tim Warner/Getty Images)

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"If you do a Horns Down to a Texas player as an opponent, that's