Sunday marked the first time the Texas Longhorns were summoned to the SEC principal’s office.

School officials expected some blowback after Texas students pelted the field with water bottles and other debris after a wacky-but-pivotal moment in the third quarter against Georgia.

They ended up getting hit with a $250,000 fine from the league office and a stern warning that other penalties may be implemented “if other requirements” are not met.

Kevin Eltife, Jay Hartzell and Chris Del Conte — the three highest-ranking members of the administration when it comes to athletics — issued a joint statement that “sincerely apologized” to Georgia coaches, players, the officiating crew and the SEC.

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“Respect, sportsmanship, and fairness are the values that drive our program, and we expect all of our fans to uphold these standards,” UT’s leadership wrote in its statement. “We are committed to fostering a positive environment for all participants, teams, officials, and fans, and we will take steps to ensure that this type of behavior does not happen again.

“We appreciate the support of Longhorn Nation and are confident that, moving forward, we will continue to represent our university with pride and respect.”

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian tried to defuse the situation in his post-game news conference. The coach himself went to the other side of the field, held up his arm and begged the students to stop throwing things immediately.

“I understand frustration,” Sarkisian said. “We all were frustrated in the moment. But all of us, Longhorn Nation, I know we can be better than that.”

One fan in the upper deck was ejected for throwing an item, a UT source told A to Z Sports. Others were ejected throughout the course of the game, but no more than usual. The school did not say how many, if any, students were ejected for throwing bottles after Jahdae Barron’s interception and overturned pass interference call.

Still, the SEC issued its own statement Sunday afternoon. The league announced the hefty fine and required Texas officials to “use all available resources, including security, stadium and television video, to identify individuals who threw objects onto the playing field or at the opposing team.”

“All individuals identified as having been involved in disrupting the game shall be prohibited from attending Texas Athletics events for the remainder of the 2024-25 academic and athletic year,” the SEC said.

The SEC had to get ahead of this issue, as it appeared to everyone watching ABC’s broadcast that Texas students got an SEC officiating crew to change its mind about a bad call. Georgia coach Kirby Smart believed “a precedent’s been set” about fan behavior now.

The SEC said after the game an official made an error in ruling defensive pass interference and the call was corrected, allowing Barron’s interception to stand and give the Horns the ball at the Bulldogs’ 9-yard line. But the call wasn’t corrected until after Texas students started throwing objects onto the field and stadium personnel needed time to clear the field.

During the stoppage, officials had time to watch numerous replays being shown on the stadium’s video board and think about what just happened.

The university has a video monitoring system that watches the entire stadium crowd during all home football games. Typically, emergency personnel can go into the crowd to help struggling patrons with medical emergencies or security can step in to break up fights.

“The throwing of debris and resulting interruption of play that took place Saturday night cannot be part of any SEC event,” commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement. “The SEC is assigned responsibility by its membership to enforce its sportsmanship and game management policies and these actions are consistent with that oversight responsibility, including the financial penalty and mandated reviews.”

The athletic department is expected to “review its game management procedures and alcohol availability policies” to prevent a recurrence of Saturday night in the future. After completion of that review, Texas officials are expected to provide a full report to the SEC leadership for review.

“The Conference is not suspending alcohol sales privileges for the University of Texas at this time but reserves the right to do so if other requirements outlined above are not met,” the SEC said in its statement.

This isn’t the first time the SEC has issued this kind of penalty. Tennessee was hit with a similar $250,000 fine in 2021 when fans stopped the game for 20 minutes by throwing debris late in the game against Ole Miss. Police arrested 18 fans that night and ejected 47 total, according to reports at the time.

Del Conte told A to Z Sports that he “hadn’t heard from the league office yet” on Sunday morning. As for the 30-15 loss itself, Del Conte said, “We just didn’t play well.”