Veteran SEC official Ken Williamson has been permanently suspended from officiating conference games, sources tell Yellowhammer News.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The decision to remove the longtime referee comes in the immediate wake of an SEC review of eleven complaints against Williamson and his crew during the Auburn-Georgia game earlier this month. According to sources, nine of those complaints were validated by conference officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yellowhammer News\u2019 requests for comment from the Southeastern Conference went unreturned on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Auburn\u2019s matchup with Georgia included unusually high-profile penalty calls.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two sequences drew national attention: a late-second-quarter goal-line review that left both fan bases bereft<\/a>, and a third-quarter sideline exchange in which Georgia coach Kirby Smart appeared to take a timeout<\/a> before the play was ultimately reset without one being charged.\u00a0<\/p>\n Georgia won 20-10.<\/p>\n Williamson, one of the conference\u2019s longest-tenured white hats with a record of major postseason assignments, was the officiating crew chief for the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n Previously this season, an initial league acknowledgement<\/a> that officials missed an \u201cunfair tactic\u201d on a trick-substitution touchdown in Oklahoma\u2019s win over Auburn, the SEC cited the NCAA rule prohibiting deceptive substitution schemes and said \u201cappropriate accountability will be applied.\u201d<\/p>\n Williamson\u2019s crew was not assigned to that game, but it did place a brighter spotlight on the calls missed during the matchup against Georgia three weeks later.<\/p>\n The SEC\u2019s officiating office publicly specifies<\/a> that crews are graded weekly and annually, with performance evaluations determining future assignments and postseason eligibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n Conference bylaws discourage public criticism<\/a> of officials by coaches and administrators, and the league rarely discloses personnel decisions tied to evaluations.<\/p>\n Michael Brauner contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/p>\n Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270<\/a>.<\/p>\n