SEC coordinator of officials Steve Shaw addressed the media Tuesday and reminded me -- and, possibly, you -- of a rule that will come into effect nationally this year: Coaches can now be flagged 15 yards for going onto the field of play to argue calls.
The key word there is can. Every coach is guilty of stepping from white to green to protest calls, so it will be up to the men in stripes to decide when and how to enforce the rule.


"That will be a pretty big change, but I think our hope is our coaches adjust, and it becomes a nonissue," Shaw said, via CBS Sports. "We still have a sideline warning if they're crowding the sideline or the team is out of the team area. We still have a sideline warning. It's a warning, a 5-yard, a 5-yard then a 15-yard penalty.
"This other you can go to immediately if they come out to protest an officiating decision, but we still have the other warning process."
The guess here is that officials will typically issue "sideline warnings" before reaching for their flags except in cases of repeated offenses or obvious attempts to prove.
But, still, the refs now have that bullet in their chamber, so don't be surprised if they decide to fire it now and then.