Veteran SEC official Ken Williamson has been permanently suspended from officiating conference games, sources tell Yellowhammer News. 

The decision to remove the longtime referee comes in the immediate wake of an SEC review of eleven complaints against Williamson and his crew during the Auburn-Georgia game earlier this month. According to sources, nine of those complaints were validated by conference officials. 

Yellowhammer News’ requests for comment from the Southeastern Conference went unreturned on Wednesday. 

Auburn’s matchup with Georgia included unusually high-profile penalty calls. 

Two sequences drew national attention: a late-second-quarter goal-line review that left both fan bases bereft, and a third-quarter sideline exchange in which Georgia coach Kirby Smart appeared to take a timeout before the play was ultimately reset without one being charged. 

Georgia won 20-10.

Williamson, one of the conference’s longest-tenured white hats with a record of major postseason assignments, was the officiating crew chief for the game. 

Previously this season, an initial league acknowledgement that officials missed an “unfair tactic” on a trick-substitution touchdown in Oklahoma’s win over Auburn, the SEC cited the NCAA rule prohibiting deceptive substitution schemes and said “appropriate accountability will be applied.”

Williamson’s crew was not assigned to that game, but it did place a brighter spotlight on the calls missed during the matchup against Georgia three weeks later.

The SEC’s officiating office publicly specifies that crews are graded weekly and annually, with performance evaluations determining future assignments and postseason eligibility. 

Conference bylaws discourage public criticism of officials by coaches and administrators, and the league rarely discloses personnel decisions tied to evaluations.

Michael Brauner contributed to this report. 

Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.