Pac-12 officials coordinator resigns

[azgreg]

http://espn.go.com/college-football/sto ... uous-weeks

In the wake of a tumultuous couple of weeks for Pac-12 officials, the league's coordinator of football officiating has resigned.

The Pac-12 announced Tony Corrente's resignation in a statement Wednesday night, citing personal and professional reasons.

"Under Tony's leadership, our program made great strides in improving the quality, accountability and consistency," commissioner Larry Scott said in the statement. "While it's unfortunate that Tony has decided to leave us at this time, I want to express my appreciation for his contribution, and for leaving our officiating program strong and headed in the right direction."

Pac-12 officials have come under fire the past couple of weeks following a series of high-profile, questionable calls and non-calls in several games. It spilled over Saturday in Colorado when coach Mike MacIntyre was seen screaming at officials and following them off the field following the Buffs' 36-31 loss to Oregon State. The tirade earned MacIntyre a $10,000 fine and a reprimand from the league earlier this week.

Corrente had served as the Pac-12's officiating coordinator since 2011 and is an NFL official who worked last season's AFC Championship Game. He missed part of the 2012 season after being diagnosed with throat cancer.

Jim Blackwood, who has more than 20 years as a college conference coordinator and 10 years as an NFL replay official, will serve as interim coordinator for the remainder of the season. He previously served as the instant replay supervisor under Corrente.

The league will conduct a search for a permanent replacement after the season.

[Katzenfreund]

.

[azcat49]

F - ing Larry Scott is so corrupt. The sooner the conference rids itself of this guy the better.

He must be bitter knowing he has to ride the coat tails of Arizona in football and basketball. He must be throwing up in his mouth everyday. Hope he chokes on it

[SCCat]

F - ing Larry Scott is so corrupt. The sooner the conference rids itself of this guy the better.

He must be bitter knowing he has to ride the coat tails of Arizona in football and basketball. He must be throwing up in his mouth everyday. Hope he chokes on it

This is where I am on Larry as well. I hope he chokes on it.

[CalStateTempe]

retreat to Byrne.

Seriously that is fucked up.

Hope that resigned ref spills the beans, because there has been no mention prior to this publicly of the conference blaming the officials.

Next Salty-dog is going to come and defend Scott.

[CalStateTempe]

And why do the odds of a playoff berth get reduced?

because of branding? thats horsesh*t and I hope the AD committee deciding this thing knows it.

[TucsonClip]

By conference does he mean Scott or the ADs and coaches within the conference?

[Chicat]

So if the unsportsmanlike bow wasn't called and by some miracle Oregon had won (maybe as the result of some other ref "error"), it would have been better in the eyes of the conference?




Fire

Larry

Scott

[AZCatGirl]

A football official was so bad he was sent to ref in basketball? No wonder basketball officiating has been so shit.

Hard to believe anyone in the ESPN comments is defending Scott. Our conference will always be a joke under him.

[Good For You]

Since Arizona is now the Pac-12's best positioned team with regards to making the playoff, do we now start getting more calls in our favor? Somehow I doubt it.

[Salty]

I think teams and coaches like to blame officials instead of their own shortcomings.

[Katzenfreund]

.

[catgrad97]

None of this should surprise the observant. Scott already is heavily influenced by Uncle Phil because, for all of the commish's weakness for large-market L.A., he would basically throw the conference director of officials under the bus for a call that was correct--made against a team from the tiny market of Eugene, Ore.

His relationship with Greg Byrne is business-like at best, in spite of all of the upgrades and major conference exposure Byrne has given the Pac-12 through Arizona in the last four years.

Scott really just has the college presidents in his corner and jack squat else for public support at this point. Anyone else who does support him because of a lousy TV contract needs to re-examine the deal from the reports about the profit-sharing of it the last few months.

Out of touch with everything except an obtuse notion of what he think will make him money. SMH at the worst conference leadership among the Power Five.

[PieceOfMeat]

profootballtalk.com:

According to Dave Mahler of 950 KJR in Seattle, Corrente resigned Wednesday morning due to perceived issues stemming from the conference blaming the officiating in losses for Oregon, Stanford and UCLA.

The three teams were perhaps the conference’s best hope to gain entry into the four-team college football playoff this year. With those teams losing, the odds for a playoff berth have been significantly reduced.

Since...

a) the unsportsmanlike call had not prevented Arizona from winning by a FG instead of a TD and...
b) punished an act specifically mentioned in the NCAA rule book (Rule 9, Section 2-a-1-h) and was...
c) preceded by a series of egregious calls against the 'Cats...

...these events add to the perception that the Pac-12 by order of Larry Scott rigs its conference games, favoring market size (UCLA vs. Arizona BB) and program pedigree (Oregon, UCLA vs. Arizona, Utah FB). This is seriously fcked up.

Unless Corrente comes forward himself and says these things in front of a camera......Scott will just get another lackey to do his bidding, maybe one who will rig the games better this time.

Is anyone really surprised by the implications of all this? I mean, obviously from this thread, none of us are....but what about people outside of our little group of knowledgable posters?

[AZCatGirl]

Is anyone really surprised by the implications of all this? I mean, obviously from this thread, none of us are....but what about people outside of our little group of knowledgable posters?

I would think a good number of Arizona fans outside of us haven't forgotten about "He touched the ball.". The question should probably be how fans of other schools perceive Scott. I would hope the line about "our officiating program strong and headed in the right direction" would be enough for fans of other schools to call him on that bullshit alone.

[Zona_Soccer10]

Larry Scott is a cancer.

[Merkin]

, for all of the commish's weakness for large-market L.A.,

And one of the reasons I don't feel good about the game Saturday. Scott's mantra of "what's good for LA is good for the PAC-12" is no doubt drummed into the officials minds. With no pro football teams in the nation's number 2 media market, the two PAC teams have Larry seeing $$$.

USC has one post 7 pm game at the Coliseum. All 4 of UA's home games have been 7 pm or later.

[The Butcher]

Since Arizona is now the Pac-12's best positioned team with regards to making the playoff, do we now start getting more calls in our favor? Somehow I doubt it.

I was just wondering the same thing. Probably not, with Scott's attitude towards us. Fuck Larry Scott. That is one corrupt sumbitch.

[MountainCat]

Since Arizona is now the Pac-12's best positioned team with regards to making the playoff, do we now start getting more calls in our favor? Somehow I doubt it.

This will be the game that Scott will decide to make a personal visit just to make sure that the refs are calling the game fair and to make a point to the rest of the Country. You know with the head of Refs in the Pac 12 stepping down, someone needs to take action!

[splitsecond]

Since Arizona is now the Pac-12's best positioned team with regards to making the playoff, do we now start getting more calls in our favor? Somehow I doubt it.

This will be the game that Scott will decide to make a personal visit just to make sure that the refs are calling the game fair and to make a point to the rest of the Country. You know with the head of Refs in the Pac 12 stepping down, someone needs to take action!

If there is ANY wind of the piece of shit coming to the game I will find a ticket to accept Taylor's offer. Preferably before he can get to the stadium.

If this is true, and it comes out that it was the conference that was coming down on Corrente, and not the schools/boosters/supporters etc this is absolute fascism and he needs to be gone yesterday. I think we all want to believe it wasn't the conference itself but other players (actually maybe not) but reality is that it is bloody obvious which horse this is coming from.

Our game aside, what the hell problems were there with UCLA? The refs TRIED to give it to them when they awarded the bonus kick on the mega-flop.

Absolute horseshit.