The Honourable Eye Gouger

On October 31st, Brandon Spikes was caught on tape, during a horific attempt to gougeing Georgia's running back during the game. While everyone expected a lengthy suspension from Florida, Coach Meyer decided to suspend Spikes for the first half against Vanderbilt the following week.
Reactions to the suspension made it out to be a joke, and everyone expected the SEC to reign down on Spikes, but before any other suspension was issued, Spikes came out decalring that he would suspend himself for the entire game, to insure he would not be a distraction.
I believe it is very easy to look at this issue, and assume that Coach Meyer tried to cover up his lenient suspension by asking Spikes to come out and suspend himself, plus it would Spikes try and get back a positive image from nation. However, NO ONE saw it from this side, during the entire Vanderbilt game, the commentators only talked about how he took the "high road" and showed how truly bad he felt about the incident, and how he was obviously ready to be back on the field as a "well-respected" player. Are you kidding me?
This is the same player who during the entire Georgia game was taking little late hits, and jumping on piles, and pushing off players when he was getting off the pile, all could have been talked about collectively the next day, however, he was caught gouging a defensless player under a pile; which became the hot topic for the following week. He could have easily been suspended for the rest of the season, or for the remaining SEC games, but instead was only suspended for one half against one of the weakest teams in the SEC. And "couragously" took a full game suspension, and all the sudden became the good guy? Oregon will suspend their heisman hopeful runningback for the entire season for punching a player who was taunting him (even though Blount was recently reinstated), but Florida will only suspend Spikes for a half. The SEC continues to be one of the most conterversial conferences of the 2009 season