SEC Penalty Report: Week 8

Penalties played a factor in Week 8’s SEC action, but not in the way you might think. Of the 11 SEC teams in action Saturday, three committed at least nine penalties in their respective games — Georgia, LSU and Missouri. Not only were those teams a perfect 3-0 on Saturday, they won those three games by a combined 80 points.

Likewise, of the five SEC teams to commit three or fewer penalties, three lost their respective games by a combined 109 points. Normally, high penalty numbers are a mark of losing football, but this week the teams that posted low penalty numbers likely posted such low numbers as a result of facing insurmountable deficits for most of the day.

Texas A&M’s correlation between penalties and points was the most bizarre of the weekend, as the Aggies committed just two penalties for six yards despite losing 59-0 to Alabama. It should be noted, however, that Alabama did not commit a single penalty for the game, bucking the Week 8 trend in favor of a more traditional trend (disciplined teams win big). Florida committed just three penalties for 39 yards, yet lost 42-13, and Tennessee committed just three penalties for 23 yards, yet lost 34-3.

Tennessee is the only team in the conference with fewer than 30 penalties on the season, but the discipline hasn’t helped UT earn an SEC victory in 2014. The Volunteers have also lost a conference-low 190 penalty yards, 54 fewer than the next closest team (Mississippi State).

Missouri committed an SEC-high 11 penalties in a 29-point win over Florida on Saturday, and Georgia lost an SEC-worst 101 penalty yards in a 13-point win on the road against Arkansas.

LSU committed 10 penalties for 80 yards yet still beat Kentucky by 38 points, and the Tigers became the first team in the SEC to commit 50 penalties on the season in the win over the Wildcats. Texas A&M has still lost the most penalty yardage of any team in the conference, costing itself 419 penalty yards on the year. Even without A&M’s two penalties for six yards Saturday, it would still have the most penalty yards in the conference in 2014.