LSU linebacker Devin White was suspended for the first half of Saturday’s game against No. 1 Alabama. White is the No. 3 Tigers’ leading tackler and an emotional leader on Dave Aranda’s defense. His suspension stemmed from a targeting ejection two weeks ago, and it’s been one of the more controversial targeting suspensions in the history of the rule.
Devin White’s targeting suspension vs. Alabama led to GoFundMes, billboard wars, and a lot of furious LSU fans
White’s suspension led the school to try to get the SEC to break an NCAA rule, and fans got involved on their own.
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
That’s because White’s a crucial player for the Tigers, and this is a huge game. White is LSU’s leading tackler by a lot, as well as the team’s top run-stuffer. LSU trailed 16-0 at halftime after playing without him, though offense was the biggest problem.
Officials ejected White late in the Tigers’ win against Mississippi State back in Week 8, before LSU’s pre-Bama bye week.
NCAA rules say targeting ejections in the second half carry a one-half suspension in the next game. That happens to be this blockbuster against Alabama, which stinks.
LSU athletic director Joe Alleva reportedly fought the suspension, briefly.
A few days after it, 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.
And then Nola.com confirmed it wouldn’t and couldn’t happen:
“Discussions with the SEC made clear there is no process for appeal,” Munson said. “The suspension will stand.”
The discussions were not contentious, Munson said. The rule as written just left no chance at an appeal. Alleva spent the past 48 hours trying, but there wasn’t much he could do.
There was a GoFundMe for a billboard to go outside the SEC’s Birmingham office, “to let them know it’s time to #FreeDevinWhite.”
It raised more than $6,000 with this goal:
#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.
Billboards really did show up in Birmingham, near the SEC’s offices – part of an all-out billboard war between the two fanbases.
Responding to the #FreeDevinWhite campaign, an Alabama fan urged LSU fans to spend their money on a different cause and started a separate GoFundMe:
Do #FreeDevinWhite billboards seem ignorant and misguided to you?
If so, this is the place for you! Donate your money more intelligently, strategically, and sympathetically.
While LSU fans waste their money on meaningless billboards based on a conspiracy theory between The University Of Alabama and the Southeastern Conference offices in Birmingham, we are starting this campaign to raise money for hurricane relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Michael, which devastated parts of the Eastern United States in early October.
More billboards went up, mixing hurricane relief with LSU taunts:
The SEC might have been 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 national rulebook’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’ve done to the SEC if it scrapped White’s suspension. Maybe the SEC could have gotten 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, that would’ve been quite odd..
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.”
White’s suspension has prompted a lot of discussion about the targeting rule itself — not the suspensions part, but what should constitute a foul.
SB Nation’s Bud Elliott has a few ideas, designed to address something the rule sort of purports to address but doesn’t really:
The way the rule is written and applied is overly broad. It does not consider intent as a mitigating factor.
And the lack of flexibility in applying the rule leads to unfair penalties and ejections, which, if called in the second half, lead to a suspension for the first half of the next game.
I am all for player safety. And for making rules that can modify behavior.
But you modify behavior by modifying intent. Punishing happenstance does not result in behavioral changes.
Anyway, for now: LSU’s top tackler didn’t play for the first 30 minutes of the biggest game of the year, against a rival and top title contender.
It was a significant blow.
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