LSU wants the SEC to overturn Devin White’s suspension vs. Alabama

It might not be impossible, but the SEC would likely have to flaunt the NCAA’s rulebook to make it happen.

Officials ejected LSU linebacker Devin White from the Tigers’ win against Mississippi State on Saturday. White’s ejection came in the second half of LSU’s romp, which means he’s suspended for the first half of the Tigers’ next game. That happens to be a Week 10 blockbuster against Alabama, which makes it an enormous blow to LSU.

LSU athletic director Joe Alleva’s reportedly fighting the suspension.

On Sunday, The Advocate reported Alleva had “been on the the phone with league officials since the call was made,” though there’s not a formal appeals process.

There’s now a GoFundMe for a billboard to go outside the SEC’s Birmingham office, “to let them know it’s time to #FreeDevinWhite.”

It had raised more than $1,000 by Monday evening and was trending on the site:

#FreeDevinWhite

We’re putting up a billboard for two weeks in Birmingham, AL, the home of SEC headquarters, to let them know it’s time to #FreeDevinWhite.

A downtown Birmingham billboard will cost $2305.

An I-65 billboard will cost $1845.

We’ll fund as many billboards as possible, with any excess funding going as a donation toward the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, in honor of Devin’s love of horses.

That’s a Geaux Tigers.

The SEC might be able to void White’s one-half suspension, because conferences administer games. But this is all about an NCAA rule, and it’d be highly unusual for a league to just flaunt the national rulebook.

The NCAA book’s pretty clear on the penalty for second-half targeting fouls:

For fouls in the second half: Disqualification for the remainder of the game and the first half of the next game.

Conferences have their own rules on a host of issues. For instance, different leagues allow road teams to have different-sized travel rosters. Different leagues have different transfer rules. Different leagues have different policies about fans storming the field. On these subjects, conferences can pretty much do what they want, subject to certain NCAA rules.

But the actual playing rulebook, which includes the line about players being suspended for the first half of the next game after a second-half targeting foul? It covers every NCAA game, whether that’s in the SEC, the Pac-12, or Division III.

I have no idea what the NCAA could do to the SEC if it scrapped White’s suspension. Maybe the SEC could get around it by retroactively overturning the targeting call, but given that the league’s review officials upheld that call and have since gotten a public statement of support from the league office, it’s not clear what the SEC could plausibly do.

The rationale for White’s ejection was simple enough, though people widely disagree about the rule in the first place.

White appeared to hit Mississippi State quarterback Nick Fitzgerald near his head while Fitzgerald was throwing a pass. Here’s the relevant part of the NCAA’s targeting rule:

No player shall target and make forcible contact to the head or neck area of a defenseless opponent (See Note 2 below) with the helmet, forearm, hand, fist, elbow or shoulder. This foul requires that there be at least one indicator of targeting (See Note 1 below). When in question, it is a foul (Rules 2-27-14 and 9-6). (A.R. 9-1-4-I-VI)

Note 1: “Targeting” means that a player takes aim at an opponent for purposes of attacking with forcible contact that goes beyond making a legal tackle or a legal block or playing the ball. Some indicators of targeting include but are not limited to:

*Launch—a player leaving his feet to attack an opponent by an upward and forward thrust of the body to make forcible contact in the head or neck area

*A crouch followed by an upward and forward thrust to attack with forcible contact at the head or neck area, even though one or both feet are still on the ground

*Leading with helmet, shoulder, forearm, fist, hand or elbow to attack with forcible contact at the head or neck area

Lowering the head before attacking by initiating forcible contact with the crown of the helmet

Also key: the definition of a “defenseless player.” Among those:

A player in the act of or just after throwing a pass.

The targeting rule also prohibits making forcible contact with the crown of the helmet. That’s not what got White in trouble on this play, however. As the SEC explained:

“By rule, no player shall target and make forcible contact to the head or neck area of a defenseless opponent. The QB on the play was defenseless at the time of the contact. By rule, all targeting calls are reviewed. The call was reviewed and confirmed.”

LSU fans were furious with the call, and they continued to boo an entire drive later, long after White had left for the locker room.

That seemed like an abnormally long time for people to stay upset about a targeting call. The cycle usually finishes a lot quicker. What’s happening now is really unique.