The James Madison football team is 4-0 after a big win at Utah State in Week 4. However, the biggest story of the game was head coach Curt Cignetti going viral for holding a cell phone as he argued with the officials regarding a call. It certainly was surprising to see Cignetti grab the phone from one of his assistants and show the image or video, and he wasn't ejected for it.

Some were surprised that Cignetti didn't get ejected from the game for using the cell phone, but Chris Vannini of The Athletic explained why in his latest mailbag:

‘Electronic communication devices for coaching purposes are not allowed on college sidelines under Article 11, Prohibited Field Equipment: “Motion pictures, any type of film, facsimile machines, videotapes, photographs, writing-transmission machines and computers may not be used by coaches or for coaching purposes any time during the game or between periods.”…The rules also note that players are ejected for using illegal signal devices. JMU wasn’t using electronic communication to cheat, so I imagine that situation is up to the referee’s discretion, and referees don’t want to eject head coaches. This isn’t basketball. For his part, Cignetti acknowledged Monday morning he was in the wrong.'

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So, there it is. Vannini mentions that electronic devices are not allowed for communication purposes, but that isn't why Cignetti and the James Madison football staff were using them, which appears to be why he wasn't ejected from the game.

On another note, it is rare to see a college football head coach ejected, and the refs probably didn't want to go to that extreme for it. The James Madison football team has high expectations once again, and the refs deciding to throw him out for something as simple as showing a picture on a cell phone probably wouldn't have gone over well.