AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The University of Texas investigation into the bottle-throwing incident that disrupted the Texas-Georgia game in October — and drew a harsh rebuke and fine from the Southeastern Conference — resulted in no one being caught or punished.
In a report to the league sent last month, Texas officials said a video review did not identify any of the culprits responsible.
Texas and Georgia meet again Saturday in the SEC championship game in Atlanta. Their fist meeting of the season in Austin, a 30-15 Georgia win, produced one of the most chaotic and controversial scenes of the college football season. Longhorns fans upset about a pass interference penalty pelted the field with debris and briefly stopped the game, giving the officials time to huddle and reverse the call.
The incident drew a $250,000 fine from the SEC, which also threatened to ban alcohol sales at future games. The SEC ordered the school to find those responsible and ban them from all athletic events the rest of the school year.
In a Nov. 7 report to SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte said the school “reviewed all available video and other sources of information” to try to find the disruptive fans.
“Despite our best effort, we have not been able to identify the individuals at issue. We will take action if new identifying information comes to light,” Del Conte wrote.
The school’s report was provided to The Associated Press this week. A university spokesman said he was unaware of any new information or punishments since it was sent to the SEC.
Del Conte declined further comment Thursday.
Del Conte told the SEC that Texas has added additional security cameras and personnel to watch the student section, updated its sportsmanship and fan code of conduct policies, and created digital messaging to encourage good behavior.
“Respect, sportsmanship and fairness are values that drive us,” Del Conte wrote. “We expect fans to uphold these standards as well.”
Sankey declined comment on the investigation report and his conversations with Texas officials. But he praised Del Conte, school President Jay Hartzell and Board of Regents Chairman Kevin Eltife “for being very clear immediately that that conduct failed to meet their own expectations.”
The Scene
Then-No. 1 Texas trailed No. 5 Georgia 23-7 when a pass interference call negated a Longhorns interception. Angry fans in or near the student section lobbed bottles and debris on the field and the game was halted for several minutes.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, who at first was angry about the penalty, crossed the field to plead with the fans to stop throwing things while stadium crews cleaned up the mess.
The break gave the game officials time to reconsider and reverse the penalty, a decision that infuriated Georgia coach Kirby Smart. Texas then cut the Georgia lead to 23-15, before the Bulldogs later put together the game-clinching drive.
“I will say that now we’ve set a precedent that if you throw a bunch of stuff on the field and endanger athletes that you’ve got a chance to get your call reversed,” Smart said after the game “That’s unfortunate because to me that’s dangerous.”
The Response
Texas officials were embarrassed and the SEC was angry.
The league issued a statement that reversing the penalty was the correct decision, but condemned the bottle throwing. Critics wondered if similar scenes could happen again in the SEC or elsewhere, sarcastically noting the Texas slogan, “What starts here changes the world.”
The SEC ordered Texas to investigate using “all available resources, including security, stadium and television video, to identify individuals who threw objects onto the playing field or at the opposing team.” It told the school to report its findings to the league.
Hartzell warned students the probe was coming. He said the incident had “embarrassed Longhorn Nation,” and agreed with the SEC’s demands to find those responsible.
“Those involved will have ramifications for their actions,” Del Conte wrote in an Oct. 22 message to students.
The Investigation
The Texas football stadium has long had an emergency operations room where staff monitor live feeds from security cameras. In 2009, Texas invited the AP into the room where a reporter observed staff watching feeds from 43 cameras. They could see if fans were drinking alcohol (which was prohibited at the time) or disruptive, or take note of unattended bags.
Fifteen years later, the report to the SEC said Texas could not identify anyone responsible for throwing debris.
The 10-page report includes a review of stadium policies and the administration’s statements to students. It includes only a single paragraph about the investigation efforts, which were led by Derek Trabon, director of the campus Office of Emergency Management. The probe included help from game operations staff and campus police.
The report offers no investigation details, such as how much video was reviewed, whether cameras actually caught fans throwing things, or if the school considered using facial recognition technology. The brief mention of the investigation does not explain why it was inconclusive.
Sankey said Thursday that the SEC will have offseason talks with schools about fan behavior, from bottle throwing to multiple instances of fans rushing the field.
“One of the learning experiences we’ve had, and this isn’t the only bottle throwing experience, we don’t always have cameras where there needs to be cameras,” Sankey said. “We will work to see how our stadiums may adjust.”