Dorm Report: Haden's actions understandable

Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - USC athletic director Pat Haden made an interesting move this past weekend when his Trojans were on the road facing intrastate and Pac-12 Conference rival Stanford.

During the game, which resulted in a 13-10 USC victory, Haden left his spot in the press box and traveled down to the field to confront the officials following a call in the game. USC head coach Steve Sarkisian was visibly upset with the referees, and reportedly asked someone on his team's staff to send Haden a text message telling him to come down to the field.

Haden arrived on the field and immediately began a lively discussion with the crew members. It was an odd situation to say the least. Since when does a head coach need the help of his boss in an attempt to win an argument during a game?

The USC athletic director almost immediately realized his move was a mistake and issued an apology for the way he behaved during the game shortly afterward.

"In retrospect, I should not have approached the game officials," Haden said. "I should have waited until after the game and gone through the appropriate channels."

Handling discussions with the referees is supposed to be Sarkisian's job, and he failed to keep his composure over the situation. Sarkisian, who is in his first season coaching at USC, has already been in the news after he accepted responsibility for taking part in publishing Josh Shaw's lie in a press release (Shaw told USC coaches he hurt himself rescuing a child from drowning) although the athletic department at USC handled the bizarre story well overall.

Sarkisian said he immediately regretted his decision to get Haden involved in the on-field discussions, saying it was a gut reaction.

"It was just a spur-of-the-moment, gut feeling," Sarkisian said. "Quite honestly, looking back at it now, I regret putting Pat in that situation."

In addition to Haden issuing the apology, he banned himself for two games from the sidelines. His Trojans are traveling to Massachusetts to take on Boston College this weekend, and then return home to face Pac-12 opponent Oregon State later in the month after a bye week.

But Haden's self-inflicted punishments weren't the only ones he received for getting involved in something he shouldn't have. The Pac-12 Conference fined Haden $25,000 earlier this week and reprimanded him for his behavior.

Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott released a statement about Haden, calling his actions inappropriate and intolerable.

"The conduct by both Sarkisian and Haden were in clear violation of our conference's standards of conduct policy," Scott said. "We appreciate the public apology and recognition of the errors in judgment, as well as Pat Haden's self-imposed two-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."

There's a bit of an added twist to this situation: Haden is on the FBS playoff selection committee, which will work to decide the four teams at the end of the regular season that will compete in the first-ever college football playoff to determine a national champion.

The selection committee is comprised of several governing bodies, including athletic directors from major institutions such as Arkansas, Clemson, Wisconsin and West Virginia, and other influential figures like Archie Manning, Condoleezza Rice and former head coaches Tom Osborne and Tyrone Willingham. Haden is one of 13 members.

Although Haden's actions were criticized by the Pac-12, they will not affect his status on the playoff selection committee.

"Emotional outbursts at games are not a matter for the playoff selection committee to deal with," said Bill Hancock, executive director of the College Football Playoff. "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."

And that's exactly why Haden's outburst is understandable. Sure, the way he handled the situation was unprofessional, and he should have instinctively known he would receive negative feedback for it. But part of being an athletic director is to support your teams, so you can't blame Haden for being passionate about one of his programs.

It was a poor judgment call on Haden's part, but put more blame on Sarkisian for even getting him involved. If he can't handle an understood part of being a coach without having Haden stand by his side, will he truly succeed at USC?

The bottom line is that the Trojans won the game, moved up six spots in the Associated Press Top 25 to No. 9 in the country, and everyone is clear on punishments and next steps.

The incident was an odd occurrence, one that certainly shouldn't have happened. But at least everyone involved realized it was exactly that - a mistake - and the Trojans can put it behind them and focus on Boston College.