Report: Pac-12 third party overturned controversial targeting call
By Keith Farner
Published:
A call in the Washington State-Southern Cal game that was ruled targeting, and appeared convincing to in-stadium replay officials and the Pac-12 command center in San Francisco was overturned by a third party.
That came from Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports in a report that said an internal replay report that was obtained that said “unfortunately a third party did not agree.” The report added that the third party was Pac-12 general counsel and senior vice president of business affairs Woodie Dixon, Yahoo Sports sources confirmed.
The play came in the third quarter of the game on Sept. 21 when USC QB JT Daniels scrambled and fell to a knee. Once he was down, Washington State LB Logan Tago dove at him headfirst and initiated helmet-to-helmet contact. The play drew both a flag for roughing the passer and a review for targeting.
The call would have ejected Tago from the game. An independent veteran official who viewed the play also told Yahoo Sports it was “clear targeting.” Targeting wasn’t called and Tago stayed in the game.
Yahoo reported that Dixon oversees football for the conference but is not a formally-trained official. Dixon telephoned in his opinion that the play wasn’t targeting, sources said. According to the report, his opinion overruled both the trained officials in the stadium replay booth and in the league’s command center.
Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott issued a statement to Yahoo Sports and denied there was a “third party” involved, as Dixon is typically in the command center and part of the replay collaboration team, in part because he has a full understanding of targeting.
“Our instant replay supervisor (Bill Richardson) is the ultimate decision maker,” Scott said. “The misperception that in this case, the ultimate decision from the command center was made by someone other than the instant replay supervisor is a concern.”
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
