Crowd noise an issue for SEC | GoGamecocksCrowd noise an issue for SEC
After the SEC put a muzzle on South Carolina's rooster crow a couple years ago, USC athletics director Eric Hyman was surprised to hear Alabama pumping up its crowd last weekend with what the SEC refers to as artificial noise.
After Alabama played the opening bars of AC/DC's "Hell's Bells" before a few first-half plays in the Crimson Tide's 20-6 victory against USC at Bryant-Denny Stadium, the SEC is sending a memo to all conference schools this week reminding them when pumped-in noise is permissible.
SEC spokesman Charles Bloom said schools are allowed to use artificial noise such as USC's rooster crow or Vanderbilt's foghorn before and after games, at halftime, following scores and during timeouts.
"You can't do it while the teams are on the field ... in the huddle, breaking the huddle," Bloom said Tuesday.
Hyman said Alabama nixed the AC/DC in the second half. But he wants to make sure the noise policy is followed everywhere.
"There've been two or three incidents where the spirit of the rule has not been embraced," Hyman said. "I've had some discussions (with the SEC) about it. We need to revisit it as a league, and we either (enforce) it or we don't."
I guess the SC record books will now have an asterisk with "attributed to white tape and artificial noise" next to the 2009 loss at B-D. :rolleye2: