SEC Says Security Concern Reason For Limited Access At Tourney

SEC Officials Say Security Concerns Forced Them To Restrict Fan Access To Basketball Games

Security concerns "were ultimately why the SEC chose to restrict fan access to the semifinals and championship game" of the men's basketball conference tournament last weekend in Atlanta after a tornado Friday forced the games out of the Georgia Dome and into Georgia Tech's Alexander Memorial Coliseum, according to Tony Barnhart of the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION. SEC Senior Associate Commissioner Mark Womack said, "These decisions are basically being made at about [2:00am ET]. At that point we have no idea what shape the city is in or what to expect the next day. There may be no law enforcement to help us with traffic and other issues because of the damage downtown. And there was the possibility that more bad weather would be coming through." Womack met  the five conference ADs whose schools were affected by the move -- Mississippi State's Larry Templeton, Georgia's Damon Evans, Kentucky's Mitch Barnhart, Arkansas' Jeff Long and Tennessee's Mike Hamilton -- who all agreed that the remaining games "would be limited to an equal number of tickets for each school." Templeton: "All of the [ADs] were in agreement that in no way could this become a general admission process where people could come on a first-come, first-serve basis. We felt that Georgia Tech had stepped up and helped us solve a major problem by giving us a place to play the games. It wouldn't have been fair to put a crowd control problem on top of that" (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 3/18).