With all the public reprimanding it's going to be doing over the next few weeks against coaches who publicly criticize officials, the SEC needs a few ground rules. One of those, it seems, it a "three strikes, you're out policy." See, for example, Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin, who was just hit with a public reprimand from the league office today for criticizing officials who neglected to throw a flag on Alabama's Terrence Cody, the behemoth defensive tackle who ditched his helmet after blocking the Vols' game-winning field goal attempt as time expired, even though the live ball was still sitting on the turf as the celebration ensued. (The league office, strangely, admitted Cody's helmet toss before the end of the play was a penalty, but not an enforceable one.)

This is Kiffin's second public reprimand in nine months, following a stern admonition from SEC commissioner Mike Slive over Kiffin's off-the-cuff (and incorrect) allegation that Florida coach Urban Meyer had committed a recruiting violation, and it sounds like his third could earn him more than a lecture from Slive:

Tennessee Coach Lane Kiffin received his second public reprimand from the Southeastern Conference on Monday afternoon, meaning a third strike could result in additional penalties or even suspension.

Commissioner Mike Slive said in a statement that Kiffin violated the conference Code of Ethics when criticizing officials regarding Saturday's 12-10 loss to No. 2 Alabama.

Just the notion of a headline reading "Kiffin suspended" is enough to send schadenfreude meters across the South into hyper-drive, even if the odds of it actually happening are almost too long to contemplate.

But certainly they're higher since the SEC began calling out refs itself, beginning with the phantom tauting call on A.J. Green in Georgia's loss to LSU earlier this month and escalating with last week's apology for a phantom unnecessary toughness call by the same crew against Arkansas' Malcolm Sheppard in the Razorbacks' loss to Florida, leading to a two-week suspension for said crew.

Still, Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino was publicly reprimanded for criticizing the same call the SEC had already admitted was wrong, and Kiffin's reprimand today is accompanied by a wag of the finger at Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen, who openly criticized officials for a number of calls in his team's loss to Florida, notably a Gator interception return for touchdown that was apparently fumbled at the one and recovered by MSU in its own end zone for a touchback, but not overturned on replay. Now that the SEC office has made it a practice to openly admit its officials are less than perfect on a somewhat regular basis, coaches have been very fast to agree with them. Based on its corrections for the penalties against Green and Sheppard, there's no reason the SEC shouldn't issue a similar correction stating that Dustin Doe fumbled the ball before crossing the MSU goal line -- that's much less of a judgment call than either of the phantom penalties.

But this has to stop somewhere, lest the coaches' impudence reach a fever pitch. What's the over/under on malcontent coaches next week? Two? Three? Assuming Georgia's able to keep it close enough against Florida in the Cocktail Party for a sketchy call to matter, I've got UGA coach Mark Richt in the pool. There's always something to pin on the refs, if you're so inclined, and right now, everyone seems very inclined.