So you think the referees have it out for your school?

Are you convinced some teams get away with more non-calls or phantom penalties than others?

Well, while we may not have the definitive proof you’re looking for, we do have some interesting penalty yardage data from the last five seasons.

Let’s take a look and see if we can find any significant trends:

SEC TEAM PENALTY YARDAGE, LAST 5 SEASONS

Source: cfbstats.com

Team 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 5-year total
Alabama 490 369 467 520 562 2,408
Arkansas 831 593 528 461 581 2,994
Auburn 745 676 601 569 896 3,487
Florida 745 773 895 711 710 3,834
Georgia 545 664 749 617 527 3,102
Kentucky 597 482 496 593 604 2,772
LSU 603 702 753 732 595 3,385
Mississippi St. 559 567 538 515 513 2,692
Missouri 747* 593* 519 543 815 3,217
Ole Miss 613 692 480 541 549 2,875
South Carolina 583 632 526 543 606 2,890
Tennessee 573 561 630 455 444 2,663
Texas A&M 812* 855* 735 690 663 3,755
Vanderbilt 536 653 584 518 630 2,921

* – denotes penalty data from Big 12

Most penalty yards by season

2014: Auburn Tigers (896)
2013: LSU Tigers (732)
2012: Florida Gators (895)
2011: Florida Gators (773)
2010: Arkansas Razorbacks (831)

Most penalized programs in the last 5 years

1. Florida Gators: Not only did Will Muschamp coached teams struggle on offense, but apparently they struggled to stay out of trouble with the referees as well. As the league’s most consistent offenders in the last five years, Florida never dipped below 700 penalty yards in a season and led the league in penalty yardage in 2011 and 2012.

2. Texas A&M Aggies: While the SEC can’t take credit for the flags thrown on the Aggies in 2011 or 2012, they still check in as the second-most penalized team in the five-year period. It is worth noting that Kevin Sumlin appears to have the Aggies trending in the right direction in this category.

3. Auburn Tigers: We’re awarding a gold star to the 2014 Auburn Tigers for being the most penalized team in the league in the last five years, accumulating 896 penalty yards in 13 games last season. It was a drastic jump from the 569 yards that flags cost the Tigers during their 2013 run to the BCS national championship game in Gus Malzahn’s first season as head coach.