USC AD and playoff committee member Pat Haden argues with officials on field
USC athletic director Pat Haden came down from his perch in the press box at Stanford to have a word with the officials during the second half of Saturday's game.
His coach, Steve Sarkisian, had received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty a few minutes prior and a key USC player, Hayes Pullard, had just been ejected for targeting.
When ESPN cameras caught Haden talking with officials, the reaction was instant and damning. Haden is a member of the College Football Playoff selection committee. He shouldn't be doing that. Because he's a member of the inaugural panel, he has standards to uphold after all, right?
OK, so what are those standards? The inaugural CFP committee is made up of people closely-affiliated with college football. Nine people, including Haden, have recusal policies, meaning that if their team is part of the discussion for one of the four coveted playoff spots, those members must leave the room when their team is being debated.
Haden is not the only athletic director on the panel. Arkansas' Jeff Long, Clemson's Dan Radakovich, West Virginia's Oliver Luck and Wisconsin's Barry Alvarez are on the panel. Former Nebraska coach and athletic director Tom Osborne is on it as well.
The recusal policy makes it abundantly clear. The committee knows that its members have inherent biases.
Besides, Haden is the athletic director at USC first and foremost before he's a member of the committee. He said in an interview with ESPN after his discussion with the officials that he had gotten a text that said Sarkisian had wanted him on the sidelines because of the penalty he received.
If his public word is true, he didn't appear unprompted to give the officials a piece of his mind. And based off the video shown by ESPN, Haden didn't lose his temper or need to be physically restrained in the slightest. He was defending an employee.
You can question why Sarkisian would summon him to the sideline in the first place, and Haden's demeanor to officials once he got there. However, there have been no public declarations of mandated objectivity from the College Football Playoff and director Bill Hancock toward the members on the panel. With the playoff two weeks into its first season, there is no precedent for how an athletic director should act. (Hancock told USA Today he hadn't seen Haden's outburst and had no comment.)
Without any guidelines for how committee members should act, Haden doesn't deserve any scorn. We've all defended a friend or co-worker because of our affiliations, even if we knew it was a losing cause. It's what Haden was doing Saturday and from the evidence provided, he did so in a manner that was not unbecoming to an athletic director. It should ultimately have no effect on his standing on a committee that can very well be considered extracurricular.
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(H/T The Big Lead for video)
Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
