Canzano: After a re-examination, the Pac 12 conference now has a problem of trust

Pac 12, Larry Scott, will not be blamed if he breaks a tennis racket or something like this morning. He woke up to what amounts to a very bad day. One that I do not see how he escapes without letting go to the conference office today.

Hey, look. The Pac 12 conference has been doing absurd things in recent years. Annoying things. For example, they started bedtime games. In addition, the conference television network is a joke. In addition, arbitration has been regularly suspect. In addition, Pac 12 football teams scored 1 to 8 in the last season. But nothing beats what was discovered following the match between USC and Washington State a few weeks ago. And for that, Scott may have to finally answer something.

A document obtained by Yahoo Sports weakens the very fabric of the competition, raises questions about the safety of players and gives the conference the ambition to become an even larger disaster than we imagined.

All this concerns the last game of the third quarter of the Trojans-Cougars match, on 21 September. US quarterback US JT Daniels knelt on the game and after a break, he was met by WSU linebacker Logan Tago, who showed personifying a missile and initiating a helmet-to-helmet contact. The play drew a flag to brutalize the smuggler and a criticism to target.

Once again, Daniels was shot in the head.

While on one knee.

Those responsible for the retransmission in the stadium thought that it was a targeting. The command center of the Pac 12 conference in the Bay Area has agreed to target it. Your living room probably did it too. But according to the internal rebroadcast report, obtained by Yahoo Sports, a third party rejected everyone. The targeting call was halted and Tago stayed in the game. And if the person who had completed the retransmission report – Gary McNanna – had not indicated "unfortunately, a third party did not agree" with the call, no one would have known. But McNanna did it. So we are here.

This "third party", according to the story, is a man named Woodie Dixon.

What? Did you wait for Vladimir Putin? Me too. But no.

Dixon is a lawyer. He has a law degree from Harvard. It's a husband and a father. He worked for the Kansas City Chiefs as General Counsel. He even worked in a law school, teaching as an adjunct professor. I'm sure he loves football. But what he is not, he is an official with some training. So why in the world is Dixon involved in overthrowing a line of people who are?

This is a question that Scott must answer. He must do it quickly. Without excuses or digging a deeper hole. Because the statement that Scott has shared with Yahoo Sports, giving up all of this as a misunderstanding, will not be enough. The report is a firearm. If Dixon has really taken the upper hand over the conference command center and those responsible for the retransmission in the stadium, he must be the EX's general counsel of the conference before sunset.

That's the only way for Scott to recover and get out of this situation.

The perception already exists that the conference works with a band of lower officials. It has become a rallying cry for losing teams. In addition, there is a perception, fair or not, that the conference has not been well positioned in major college football. No Football College Playoffs team last season and probably again this season. The televised deal also brings each conference member about $ 11 million less per year on average than their SEC counterparts by 2024. This represents a $ 66 million disadvantage for each member. of Pac 12. The public has accepted all the above. But now, I think we have a compromise.

The conference lawyer phoned to cancel the entire process established by the Pac 12 to consider a possible targeting call? Now, you have just made sure that all other problems seem secondary. So congratulations, commish. On the bright side, no one is going to talk about DirecTV this week.

The Pac 12 conference has a problem of trust. Each appeal examined is now accompanied by a murmur. Why not get your hands on the Oregon-Stanford gaming report and have a look? What about the Utah-Washington report? Where does it end? Probably never. That's why the Pac 12 can not hesitate.

Once again, Scott denies the presence of a third party. He calls this a misunderstanding. But McNanna, who was in charge of the retransmission in the cabin, wrote very clearly in his report: "The retransmission booth and the command center agreed that it was a fault of targeting, but unfortunately, a third party did not accept it. "went with the decision on the ground of [roughing the passer] without targeting. It did not play well on TV. Inverted my stop for [targeting] do not [targeting]. "

Basically, after a thorough review, the conference has a problem of trust.