Blown calls stoke Pac-10 firestorm

Down in Walnut Creek, Calif., where the Pac-10 Conference calls home, they moved from one office building to another a couple of months ago. Among other problems with the landlord, the air conditioning was often on the blink.

Pac-10 officials thought it was hot then. That was nothing.

These are not happy days for the league on several fronts, one of them a tepid showing against quality nonconference football competition. Only USC has a victory against a Top 25 team.

Whoops, you might claim Oregon does, too, although the Ducks might develop some high ankle sprains from lugging around the asterisk attached to their Oklahoma win Saturday.

By now, you know the particulars. The Pac-10 announced Monday it was suspending officials from that game, including the replay man, for a week for "errors" in the fiasco finish in Eugene on Saturday that gave Oregon a — yeah, right — 34-33 victory.

Oregon had just scored to make it 33-27 when it recovered an onside kick. Until Monday's statement by the Pac-10, it seemed worthwhile to hedge that another, unseen-by-others camera angle persuaded the booth official to conclude he didn't have enough to overturn the call.

Instead, what appeared to nearly everybody — television viewers; Ducks alumnus Dan Fouts, doing the game for ABC; Stevie Wonder, humming "My Cherie Amour" many miles away — is that the Ducks' Brian Paysinger touched the ball before it went 10 yards, where an Oklahoma player awaited it.

Moments later, the Sooners were docked for pass interference, but the booth official was called to action again because it appeared an Oklahoma lineman had tipped Dennis Dixon's pass, which would erase the penalty.

Turns out, they could have consulted Dixon, who admitted to Oregon coach Mike Bellotti that the ball was tipped. The booth official allowed the call to stand, leading some people to conclude that he was actually tuned to the Auburn-LSU game.

Not only Sooners coach Bob Stoops, but Oklahoma president David Boren, weighed in on the injustice. Boren said Monday he wants Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg to strike the score from the Big 12 record books.

You might wonder: Should a university president have better things to do? Never mind, it's Oklahoma.

"Scratch that appearance before the state legislature. Cancel that fund-raiser for the new physics building. The Sooners got screwed!"

You'd also like to think that if there's going to be instant replay — tradeoff for which, it seems, are the loopy new rules to shorten the game — they might be able to get the call right.

Regarding the Pac-10, if there's anything worse than a sagging national reputation in football, it's the perception that only through officiating incompetence can it gain a marquee victory.

This, of course, exempts USC, which is again swatting aside everything in its path. Including, some are alleging, the NCAA manual.

It's not the ideal scene for the Pac-10. Here is reigning Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush of the Trojans, the football flagship of the conference, being investigated in an eight-month probe by Yahoo.com for alleged improper benefits totaling about $100,000 by agents.

The Pac-10 and NCAA are looking into it. Bush says not to worry. Easy for him to say: He's gone off to a fat contract with the New Orleans Saints.

Here's one repeated phrase in the NCAA manual: "Representative of an institution's athletic interests." That's a booster, and any sort of involvement would be big trouble for USC. But agents are of another ilk, and even if the payouts are proven, the Trojans might skate past any future penalties.

But there's that other nettlesome NCAA term: "Lack of institutional control." In July, the Los Angeles Times did a revealing story on how USC coach Pete Carroll has almost courted outside elements at Trojans practices and scrimmages, everything from rapper Snoop Dogg to agents, believing it to be a recruiting tool, part of the eclectic allure of USC. Meanwhile, the Yahoo.com story indicates agents were in the locker room last year.

If the Pac-10 and NCAA deem safeguards against agent abuses to fall under the umbrella of institutional control, the Trojans might want to hire good lawyers.

Then again, as any Washington fan who can remember back to 1993 will tell you, nobody gets whacked anymore. Bowl bans are virtually passé. The NCAA's shift to being kinder and gentler to the athlete — a good thing — has somehow broadened to going soft on offending athletic departments. A booster buys the star tailback a Hummer, the kid sits for the first series against Stephen F. Austin.

As the argument goes, it's all about money now. Oklahoma and the Big 12, if they come up a victory shy of an extra BCS bid, will suffer the pain of a several-million-dollars hit. Who knew home cookin' could cost so much?

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com