SEC home teams will be allowed to play music between plays
Road teams in the SEC are going to hear louder stadiums in 2014. Kind of a scary thought for some venues, isn't it?
Home teams will be allowed to play music over the PA until the quarterback is set under center or in the shotgun next season. Bands had been allowed previously, but piped-in music had been outlawed.
“If you need to get people revved up for a big third-down play, you can do that,” Georgia AD Greg McGarity told the Athens Banner-Herald. “You could always do it with your band, but now you can do it any way you want to. You still have to stop once the quarterback gets over the ball, gets under the center or in the shotgun.”
The ACC allows music to be piped in, so the SEC is simply joining others rather than setting a precedent. The first song Georgia plays in a game in 2014 should be "Who Let the Dogs Out."
According to McGarity, the change "would create more excitement across the conference,” and hopefully help with fan enthusiasm. Given the rabidity of some fanbases, it seems odd that enthusiasm would need to be stoked. However, some schools like Georgia, have been dealing with an attendance problem, especially among students. From 2009-12, nearly 40 percent of Georgia's student tickets were unused.
Would music at the game help that issue? It certainly won't hurt, but we can't imagine someone would choose to go to a game now because there's a chance some Guns 'N Roses would be rocked between plays. More likely, improved wifi and cell services would do the trick. Those two things are topics also being discussed.
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is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @NickBromberg
