re: Miss St and Cowbell Tradition

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What would likely work is if the ref would first throw a warning flag, then begin penalty flags. If opponents began ringing bells, and causing penalties on Miss State, then the bells would go.

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That's what I thought at first as well, but I'm thinking that would most likely result in 1 of 2 things:

1. Rule is over-enforced, causing Miss St to lose games because of a minority of bad fans
2. Rule is under-enforced, resulting in the same outcome we have now

It seems like fining the school was the better way to go. If the fans don't care, it affects the school's athletic budget. It needs to be an amount significant enough that the school will actually care to enforce it (see the SEC rules over rushing the field after big wins, which did significantly cut that down because the schools stepped up to enforce it 250k fine)