The Southeastern Conference announced Friday morning that they had fined Florida Gators football coach Urban Meyer $30,000 for his comments earlier in the week regarding a missed call on a late hit on quarterback Tim Tebow by Georgia linebacker Nick Williams.

In response to a question from Pat Dooley of the Gainesville Sun, Meyer replied that he had sent tape to the officials for review and admitted that it was an obvious blown call.

His comments came less than a week after the Southeastern Conference announced a revision to its rule on public comments on officiating, allowing the SEC to fine or suspend any coach violating the rule.

"I'm not sure I'm allowed to give you that, what they said. I don't want to step out of line. Once again I've always had great confidence in SEC officiating -- that should have been a penalty in my opinion," Meyer said. "Obviously it should have been. You've got to protect quarterbacks. That's the whole purpose. It's right in front of the referee. But once again, I'm not sure how they're going to handle that but we do send it in, and that was one of the plays we did send in."

SEC Commissioner Mike Slive deliberated on the penalty for almost two days before deciding on the $30,000 fine.

“Coach Meyer has violated the Southeastern Conference Code of Ethics,” Slive said. “SEC Bylaw 10.5.4 clearly states that the coaches, players and support personnel shall refrain from public criticism of officials. The league’s Athletics Directors and Presidents and Chancellors have made it clear that negative public comments on officiating are not acceptable.”

“As I stated last week, I have great respect for Commissioner Mike Slive and the Southeastern Conference and I respect this decision,” Meyer responded. “There was no intent to criticize an official after being asked about a situation that occurred last Saturday, and I apologize for my remarks.”

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