Anyone who covered Notre Dame basketball when [autotag]Mike Brey[/autotag] was coach will tell you he’s a pretty easygoing guy. The way he spoke at times, you wouldn’t mind if he pulled up a seat next to you at the bar and just start telling you one coaching story after another. That’s just who he is.
If Brey felt his team was being put at a disadvantage though, he wasn’t afraid to tell it like it was. Such was the case when he criticized the officiating after the Irish lost a close game at Florida State in January 2020. The ACC responded by fining Brey $20,000.
Nearly five years later, Brey has left college basketball, but ACC coaches across all sports continue to be fined for being critical of officials. Pittsburgh football coach Pat McMurphy was just fined $5,000 for it.
However, Brey seems less bothered by McMurphy’s fine than the apparent inconsistency in the amount for which coaches are fined:
Pitt fball coach gets 5000$ fine from ACC for talking about the refs…mine was 20k!?!? https://t.co/bhaGaAX8m6
— Mike Brey (@CoachMikeBrey) September 16, 2024
Look, we’re not going to pretend to know what goes into determining how much coaches get fined for things. But if one coach is losing four times as much money as another for the same action, it might be time to reevaluate your practices. Otherwise, it’s pure chaos.
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