No bull, just dogs: Texas mascot banned, UGA's OK for SEC title game

Texas might have beef with the Southeastern Conference officials after denying the Longhorns' request to bring live mascot Bevo XV inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium for Saturday's championship game with Georgia in Atlanta.

A nearly one ton longhorn steer, Bevo XV is the Texas mascot and storms the home field of the Longhorns before and during games.

The animal is larger than the combined weight of the five-person offensive line for either team and was considered too excessively large to patrol the dome sideline safely.

The conference decided to make the preemptive decision after saying it "look at alternatives" after receiving the request from Texas.

"The reality is there is limited sideline space at the stadium. We can't jeopardize the safety of Bevo or the game participants," SEC spokesman Chuck Dunlap said.

Georgia is permitted to leash up its mascot, a recognizable English bulldog named Uga XI.

In response, Texas fans launched a The Change.org petition with thousands of signatures as of Friday.

But Bevo XV also has a reputation stemming from a near-incident in similar indoor surroundings.

At the Superdome in New Orleans before the 2019 Sugar Bowl, Bevo XV toppled a barricade enclosure and began to make a charge in the direction of Georgia's bulldog mascot. At the time, the mascot was Uga X. The animals did not get close enough to have any direct interaction, but the longhorn was held by members of the Texas contingent and safely restrained.

During NFL games at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, camera crews, boomlift camera machinery and cheerleaders crowd the sideline near the playing field and high-end box seats are closer to the action than many other, older stadiums.

--Field Level Media