somebody stirred up the cowbell **** again...

[MrHooch]

over on BDJ. I'm not really interested in having the whole big discussion over again, but it did remind that as far as I know we haven't heard what the actual penalties will be for breaking said rules now, and I thought those were supposed to be decided upon recently. Does anyone know when that will happen? I'd also like to know what the criteria is to incur the penalty. Will one bell do it? Will a hundred?

 

[sleepy dawg]

You ring the cowbell when you aren't supposed to, then it will be banned forever after this year. I think if we can go just one year where we obey the rules, then they will pass a much longer term rule for the cowbell. At that point we can be careless.

Sorry for stirring the ****.

 

[MrHooch]

You ring the cowbell when you aren't supposed to, then it will be banned forever after this year. I think if we can go just one year where we obey the rules, then they will pass a much longer term rule for the cowbell. At that point we can be careless.

Sorry for stirring the ****.

Not trying to be a smartass but let me rephrase my question so it's clear...

Have we heard what the MONETARY penalties will be regarding the ringing of cowbells at "improper" times yet? And if so, what are they?

 

[clintstoned]

My guess is they make the first fine $25 - $50K, then $100K, then $250K. They will go as far above $0 as it takes to make it stop.

 

[Johnson85]

but I thought they were holding off on announcing the penalties until next year. My impression was that they're basically seeing whether fans will more or less attempt to abide by the rules. If we show no restraint, they'll set penalties high enough that MSU will be adamant about enforcing the ban.

I thought that's kind of what they said after the Destin meeting.

 

[patdog]

This is a 1-year trial. If we <17> this up, there's not going to be a next year. We'll be stuck with cowbells illegal plus fines for non-compliance. And for the people who think, "Well, they've never really been serious about the cowbell ban before, so this is just the same old, same old and we're going to ring them all we want." Consider this. This is the first time in 30 years they've even mentioned fines. When they're talking about money, they're serious. </p>

 

[fishwater99]

No way in hell all our fans will ring responsibly. It just is not going to happen. It only takes a few fools to screw this up, and they will be there with a cowbell in each hand.

 

[randystewart]

I'm not sure when that is though.
As for what stirred this issue up again, I think it is no secret that the Egg Bowl did that. I know for a fact that over 4000 people emailed Slive about it around Thanksgiving...... For what it is worth, I have heard that Slive is actually on our side and sees them as a non issue. He is catching flack from "some" member institutions about a rule being on the books and not being enforced. As much as we like to hate him, he actually did go to bat for us on the cowbell issue but lost.