Southern California athletic director Pat Haden has been fined by The Pac-12 Conference because of confronting game officials at the Stanford Stadium during a game. He fine is worth $25,000 for his offense.
Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott sent out a statement regarding the matter saying that the action conducted by Haden during USC's 13-10 victory at Stanford on Saturday was inappropriate.
He said "such actions by an administrator in attempt to influence the officiating, and ultimately the outcome of a contest, will not be tolerated."
Aside from Haden, the organization also reprimanded USC coach Steve Sarkisian as he said that he had requested Haden's presence on the sideline after a series of penalties left him irate at officials.
Both Haden and Sarkisian have already apologized for their actions with Sarkisian issuing additional statement after the disciplinary actions.
He said "I regret putting Pat in the situation I put him in on Saturday. 'It is my job to manage the game, not Pat's. For the good of the game, I will be better on this in the future."
College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock confirmed that Haden's position in the committee has not changed and he remains as one of the five active athletic directors on the playoff committee.
Hancock said "Emotional outbursts at games are not a matter for the playoff selection committee to deal with. This does not affect Pat Haden's capability as a committee member. We recognize that athletics directors cannot be dispassionate about their own teams, and that's why we have the recusal policy."
The situation started at Stanford after the Trojans had been called for 35 yards in penalties on three plays, including Sarkisian getting whistled for unsportsmanlike conduct and star linebacker Hayes Pullard getting ejected for targeting the head of Stanford's Ty Montgomery at the end of a punt return.
Although apologies have been made, the Pac-12's commissioner was not appeased with it.
Scott said "The conduct by both Sarkisian and Haden were in clear violation of our Conference's Standards of Conduct policy. We appreciate the public apology and recognition of the errors in judgment, as well as Pat Haden's self-imposed 2-game sideline ban. We took this into consideration as we determined the discipline. Nonetheless, the actions fell short of our expectation of our head coaches and athletics directors as role models for our student-athletes and important leaders of our institutions."
