Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott announced an immediate change to the conference’s replay process that will prevent Pac-12 leadership from having involvement in the process.
This move comes following a report that a member of Pac-12 leadership intervened in a decision that was based on a replay.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that we’ve made mistakes in terms of our procedures involved with replay review in the command center,” Scott said Thursday, according to ESPN.com. “We nixed administrative oversight and leadership with real-time replay review calls made by our experts on the field, in the stadium, and in the command center.”
A report by Yahoo Sports, which obtained a replay booth report, indicated that a “third party” “did not agree” with the decision by replay booth officials and by the command center regarding a targeting call in the USC Trojans-Washington State Cougars game on Sept. 21.
The result was that targeting was not called.
The third party, according to Yahoo, was Woodie Dixon, the Pac-12’s general counsel and senior vice president of business affairs.
Scott confirmed on Thursday that Dixon, who is not trained in officiating, was the person involved.
Scott said no punishment will be administered and was confident there was “no mal-intent” by those involved.
Scott also said Dixon, who oversees football for the Pac-12, did not believe he was dictating to the replay official what call should be made.
On the play in question, Washington State linebacker Logan Tago made helmet-to-helmet contact with USC quarterback JT Daniels after Daniels had taken a knee.
Officials on the field called Tago for roughing the passer with no targeting before it was sent to the replay booth and the command center in San Francisco for further review.
“Both the replay booth and the Command Center agreed this was a targeting foul but unfortunately a third party did not agree so the targeting was removed and we went with the ruling on the field of RPS (roughing the passer) with no targeting,” said the internal report, which was written by replay official Gary McNanna and obtained by Yahoo Sports. “This didn’t play well on TV. Reversed my stoppage for TGT (targeting) to not TGT.”
