LSU football fans have taken to the internet once again, this time in hopes of spurring the SEC officials to repeal their suspension of Tigers linebacker Devin White, who was ejected from the team’s game against Mississippi State last Saturday for a questionable targeting call in the fourth quarter (shown below).
LSU fans have turned to the internet to fight this ‘injustice,’ and for the second time this season have created a GoFundMe which has already raised over $3,000 in an effort to put up billboards in Birmingham, AL just outside of the SEC headquarters portraying #FreeDevinWhite on them.
The first occurrence of an LSU GoFundMe campaign came from US Rep. Garrett Graves in an attempt to raise money to pay the school’s fine for storming the field after upsetting Georgia a few weeks back. While the campaign has since slowed down, it received widespread support, raising close to $17,000.
THIS was called and upheld as "targeting" on LSU LB Devin White.pic.twitter.com/kzmovvepkF
— Saturday Down South (@SDS) October 21, 2018
The #FreeDevinWhite campaign was started by Tiger fan Edward H. who has since stated that “We’ll fund as many billboards as possible, with any excess funding going as a donation toward the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, in honor of Devin’s love of horses.”
The reasoning behind the horses being that White is a well-documented horse owner.
There is clear evidence of collusion and of course it’s between @SEC and @AlabamaFTBL . I won’t stand for it. Read my latest in @theadvocatebr tonight. #GeauxTigers https://t.co/cOY2cweauT
— James Carville (@JamesCarville) October 22, 2018
White is set to be suspended through the first half of LSU’s November 3rd matchup against reigning National Champion Alabama. Many Tiger fans have been quick to throw accusations of collusion between the SEC and Alabama, and while nobody seems to really be convinced of this, many have argued that the targeting call was botched, and the suspension, as a result, is unjustified.
UPDATE: The #FreeDevinWhite gofundme campaign, combined with an end of October special, raised enough money to fund 13 billboards. They'll be going live around Birmingham any moment now. pic.twitter.com/j53CeRlWVp
— Bradford (@LSUbradford) October 23, 2018
LSU AD Joe Avella has been in contacts with the league since the ejection trying to get the ruling overturned and while the league has stated that the call is under review, there is no set appeals process for targeting calls, so their options as far as reprimanding the situation are limited.