Fans love to complain about officiating during football games, and this year, the SEC has even added an official Twitter account to handle some of the in-game explanations.

We can’t wait to watch that handle on the first controversial call of the year.

Anyway, we ran the numbers on penalties over the last five years in the SEC. The breakdown below is sorted by penalties per game.

SEC team penalties per game, last 5 seasons

Source: CFBstats.com

Rank Team G Pen Pen. Yds. Pen/G Yds/G
1 Arkansas 63 330 2865 5.2 45.5
2 South Carolina 64 339 2856 5.3 44.6
2 Tennessee 63 335 2764 5.3 43.9
4 Miss State 65 351 3094 5.4 47.6
5 Alabama 73 401 3422 5.5 46.9
5 Auburn 66 361 3248 5.5 49.2
7 Georgia 68 378 3181 5.6 46.8
7 Kentucky 63 351 3232 5.6 51.3
9 Vanderbilt 62 354 2940 5.7 47.4
10 Texas A&M 65 379 3311 5.8 50.9
11 LSU 63 384 3323 6.1 52.7
12 Ole Miss 62 386 3322 6.2 53.6
13 Missouri 64 431 3591 6.7 56.1
14 Florida 63 442 3640 7.0 57.8

Most penalties per game by season

  • 2018: Ole Miss 7.3, Florida 7.3
  • 2017: Florida 8.0
  • 2016: Florida 6.8
  • 2015: LSU 8.1
  • 2014: Missouri 7.3

Few Takeaways: 

  • The Florida Gators have averaged 7.0 penalties per game since 2014, the most of any team in the SEC. Missouri, however, is determined to make it interesting. The Tigers are right behind the Gators averaging 6.7 penalties per game. The Gators have consistently been the most penalized team from the Urban Meyer era through the Jim McElwain era. The Gators tied Ole Miss in 2018 for the league worst averaging 7.3 penalties per game in Year 1 under Dan Mullen. It’s certainly an interesting phenomenon.
  • Alabama and Georgia, the two most consistent programs, are in the middle of the SEC averaging just 5.5 and 5.6 penalties per game respectively. Consider that Alabama has also played in 73 total games the last five years, the most in the SEC. Nick Saban’s teams usually play clean football on the biggest stages.