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Larry Scott defending Pac-12's officiating procedures
SEATTLE (AP) — Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott again defended the conference's handling of its officiating procedures on Saturday after a report cited text messages from Washington State coach Mike Leach questioning the conference's decisions during the Cougars loss to Southern California last month.
Speaking at halftime of Washington's game against Colorado, Scott said a thorough review of the conference's centralized replay is expected soon, but it has already changed some of its replay review protocols based on what happened in the Washington State-USC game.
"We corrected those immediately in terms of the protocol and who's involved in any replay review decisions, and we're in the process of compiling a more thorough report that we'll have a chance to discuss with members over the next couple weeks," Scott said.
Scott declined to comment specifically about a report from Yahoo! Sports that cited text message from Leach to conference officials expressing his displeasure with calls made in the loss to USC last month. Leach was particularly irritated when a targeting penalty wasn't called against USC's Porter Gustin for a hit against Washington State quarterback Gardner Minshew. Had the penalty been called, a Cougars' drive late in the game would have been extended.
"The Pac-12 cannot say with any credibility, that they are actually trying to protect student athletes," Leach texted to Scott, according to Yahoo!
"I won't comment on private communications we have with coaches. What I will say is, in terms of our procedures if there's ever a concerned raised, an allegation, we immediately go to our schools, our university athletics departments and see if they want an inquiry into something like that," Scott said. "And Washington State declined for us to do that. Beyond that, I won't make any other comment about it."
