And the saga over the officiating crew that worked last week’s Arkansas-Florida game continues.

Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino was reprimanded by the SEC office for publicly criticizing the officials. Here’s what the league office had to say:

Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive has issued a public reprimand to University of Arkansas head football coach Bobby Petrino for his public comments earlier this week.

“Coach Petrino has violated the Southeastern Conference Code of Ethics,” Slive said. “SEC Bylaw 10.5.4 clearly states that coaches, players and support personnel shall refrain from all public criticism of officials.”

It looks like the Southeastern Conference didn’t think a simple “My bad” was enough for the officiating crew that made some controversial calls in Florida’s 23-20 win over Arkansas.

Here’s from the SEC’s office:

The officiating crew from Saturday’s Arkansas at Florida football game will be removed from its next scheduled assignment on Oct. 31 and will not be assigned to officiate as a crew until Nov. 14, Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive announced Wednesday.

“A series of calls that have occurred during the last several weeks have not been to the standard that we expect from our officiating crews,” said Slive.  “I believe our officiating program is the best in the country, however, there are times when these actions must be taken.”

Following each weekend, the conference office reviews games from the previous week, using video replays as well as interviews with officials, coaches and administrators.

“While only a few calls have been identified, the entire crew shoulders responsibility for each play.  I have taken this action because there must be accountability in our officiating program,” added Slive.  “Our institutions expect the highest level of officiating in all of our sports and it is the duty of the conference office to uphold that expectation.”

In addition, there will be an impact on eligibility for post-season bowl assignments for the crew.

  OK, now that I’ve gotten some sleep and a cup of coffee, I’m ready for the SEC Media Days to start in an hour or so. Apparently, I’m not the only one.

  Radio Row in the hallway of the Wynfrey Hotel is filled with sports talk radio hosts discussing anything and everything SEC related. ESPN’s college football crew has arrived. And the media guides for all 12 SEC schools have been passed out to the reporters in attendance.

  SEC commissioner Mike Slive will be the first person to take the microphone today, and there’s no doubt that the bulk of his talk with the media will center around the SEC’s new 15-year TV deal with ESPN that reportedly came at a $2.2 billion price tag.

  The TV deal goes into effect next month and will give the league a lot more national exposure.

  ESPN has announced its TV schedule for the first three weeks of the college football season. Arkansas’ Sept. 5 season opener against Missouri State will be shown on ESPN360.com and ESPN GamePlan.

  As we’ve known for a few weeks, ESPN or ESPN2 will broadcast Arkansas’ Sept. 19 game against Georgia in Reynolds Razorback Stadium. 

The Southeastern Conference spring meetings continue in Destin, Fla., today and, as expected, there has been no shortage of news.

Plenty of topics to cover. Much of it is Arkansas related, too. So the best thing to do is just dive right in:

• First, check out this bit of information from ESPN’s Chris Low. It seems the SEC is considering sponsoring legislation to the NCAA that would put a cap on how many football players a program can sign each year. The number thrown about is 28. It’s an interesting idea, one that would’ve changed the way Arkansas did things last winter when it signed 32 players.

• Tony Barnhart has a notebook full of items from the meetings. The first thing he offers his opinion on is the fact that the American Football Coaches Association has decided to make a coach’s top 25 poll private beginning in 2010. In case you didn’t know, the vote, which plays a part in the BCS formula, has been public. Barnhart believes it’s a bad move to keep it quiet.

• SEC commish Mike Slive has also had a stern message for his men’s basketball coaches this week. After seeing the SEC get only three teams in the 2009 NCAA Tournament he believes tougher nonconference schedule are a must. Ron Higgins of the Memphis Commercial Appeal has an interesting story on Slive’s push to toughen schedules in Wednesday’s paper. Arkansas may have had the worst season in the SEC last year, but might’ve played one of the tougher nonconference schedules.

• The topic we’ve heard most about is obvious: Telling football coaches to cool it. There have been plenty of stories written about it from Destin this week. Here’s one more look at what Slive said from Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News. Warning: Houston Nut quotes included.

I did something a little unusual this morning. I slept in.

It was great. Maybe not for the blog’s sake, but I think it was something I sorely needed after spending all of last week in Hoover for the SEC Baseball Tournament.

But now that I’m awake, how about a few links in regard to the SEC spring meetings in Destin?

We all know that Lane Kiffin was the center of attention yesterday. It was his first chance to meet face-to-face with many of the coaches he traded verbal jabs with in the offseason. And there’s no doubt the media at the event noticed.

• Andy Staples of SI.com wrote an interesting piece on the encounter between Kiffin and South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier. It should be no surprise who stole the headline in this one-on-one: Spurrier.

• Not to be outdone, Tony Barnhart weighed in on the topic, too. Barnhart’s take: Kiffin isn’t apologizing anymore for the things he has done since being hired. His goal is to try to put Tennessee back in the limelight.

• The Birmingham News is there, too, and weighted in on Kiffin’s big day. One interesting item that Jon Solomon included is SEC commissioner Mike Slive’s take on all of it. In short, Slive says “We’re all in this together.”

Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino hasn’t been caught participating publicly in the entertaining war of words that seems to be spreading around the Southeastern Conference this offseason.

But Petrino may have had one of the quotes of the day about it all down in Destin, Fla., today.

Jeremy Fowler of the Orlando Sentinel is in Destin covering the SEC spring meetings this week and one of the biggest buzzes of the week is the bickering between football coaches. Most of it coincides with Lane Kiffin’s arrival at Tennessee and his fued with Florida’s Urban Meyer. We said earlier today that SEC commissioner Mike Slive will tell his coaches to cut it out this week.

Well, those football coaches were all meeting face-to-face this afternoon. Before they went into their room, Petrino stopped to chat with the media attending the event and he dropped this interesting take about the feuding.

“There is that ultimate fighting out there,” Petrino said. “If guys want to go out there and battle, have at it. It might help sell tickets.”