Live from the department of rules nobody asked for, we have news not of the implementation of something new but rather of an old unnecessary rule that’s here to stay.
Remember when the Big 12 ruled that the “horns down” hand gesture — the one Texas opponents often do to mock the “hook’em horns” move — could result in a taunting penalty, even though it might not, but sometimes it will? Well, apparently that rule is here to stay even after Texas exits the Big 12 for greener pastures of the SEC likely sometime after 2023.
Responding to a question of whether it would still count as a penalty, Big 12 coordinator of officials Greg Burks said it’s treated as any other taunt.
I asked Burks yesterday if Horns Down would still be a penalty in the Big 12 when Texas is gone. He laughed. It's just treated as any other taunting penalty.
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) July 14, 2022
The rule is dumb, but Texas’ impending exit, along with Oklahoma, means the Big 12 will never have to admit it. They can just continue applying it as they see fit until Texas is gone and the so-called taunt becomes the SEC’s non-problem.
And hey, in the extremely unlikely event that one of the remaining Big 12 teams continues to throw up the “horns down” even after Texas is gone, at least there will still be a rule in place to deter such abhorrent behavior.
