Who doesn’t love some good dancing? Apparently the referees in the Georgia Southern–Coastal Carolina game.
The two teams played each other Saturday, and in between the third and fourth quarters, the referees issued unsportsmanlike conduct penalties to the entire benches of both teams for dancing and jumping around to the song “Mo Bamba.”
Georgia Southern plays a different song over the loud speakers before the start of the fourth quarter in every game, and on Saturday, “Mo Bamba” came on the loud speakers, as it has before. The Georgia Southern players threw four fingers up, signifying that the game was heading to the fourth quarter, and started dancing and jumping around to the music in what the team calls “bringing the juice.”
According to Georgia Southern’s sports information director, Bryan Johnston, the Coastal Carolina players took exception to the dancing and started jumping around and dancing on their sideline.
It wasn’t so much a “dance-off” as it was a way for the players to puff their chests out and try to intimidate the other side, but there was dancing involved in the show of intimidation. Despite the players’ staying nearly 20 yards apart, with no fighting, punches or physical contact, the referees threw penalties on both teams.
Because three players had already been given unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in the game, those three were ejected from the game. That included Georgia Southern’s Jay Bowdry and Coastal Carolina’s T’Qele Holmes.
If that weren’t odd enough, the game went to triple overtime before Georgia Southern danced off with a 30-27 win.