Oklahoma State Paddle People Face Big 12 Censorship

2:00 Update:

It appears that TCU is to blame for this mess. After a formal complaint from the Horned Frogs, Big 12 athletic directors passed a rule effective immediately that prohibits artificial noise-makers at football games while the ball is in play or the offense is at the line of scrimmage. This includes paddles and those awful noice makers in Lubbock. What about the OU Band?

UPDATE....Here's a link to a short NewsOk article.

And this great tweet...

And here's the commercial...

2011 Big 12 Conference Football PSA (via Big12Conference)

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This was my first exposure to this news...

And a couple other tweets around the topic...

No reason to question the authenticity of this news, and while I was asking for the "official" reason, I think it is quite clear what that is...

Somebody complained. Seriously.

Updates to follow, but suffice it to say this is a sad day for Oklahoma State, the Big 12, and college football. The Paddle People are a part of OSU home games. We talk about having traditions for home games, and this is a big one. And the Big 12 has decided to essentially try and take it away because somebody doesn't like a little noise?

I have to say, I find it a bit odd that this is happening right before the Texas game, especially in light of the quote floating around from one of the coaches or players (of course now at 2 in the morning I can't find it) referencing how loud it can get inside BP, "like being in a pinball machine."

Oh well, we can still look forward to screaming our lungs out...as long as they don't take that away too.