When Oklahoma and Texas moved to the SEC in the summer of 2021, everyone in college football immediately wondered if Big 12 officials would give the Sooners and Longhorns the short end of the stick on close calls in big games.
When I watched the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State football game last November — on the night before Lincoln Riley was hired by USC — I couldn’t help but notice that Oklahoma didn’t get a single 50-50 call of particular importance in the fourth quarter. The calls might not have been horrendous, but every “could go either way” call went against OU.
Coincidence? You be the judge.
USC fans have to be wondering if they’re going to get similar treatment from Pac-12 refs this year and in 2023.
The chief of Pac-12 football operations, former San Francisco 49er (and Super Bowl champion) Merton Hanks, insists that will not happen, as told to Jon Wilner of the Wilner Hotline:
“It will be business as usual,” Merton Hanks, the senior associate commissioner for football operations, told the Hotline earlier this week when a wide-ranging interview turned to how USC and UCLA will be treated during their penultimate season in the conference.
“There will be no shenanigans, no phantom situations. I won’t tolerate that. I’ve made that clear and so has the commissioner (George Kliavkoff).
“It speaks to the integrity of our conference, which ultimately speaks to my integrity.”
“That said,” Hanks added, with a chuckle, “I’m sure somebody will be mad about a call involving USC and UCLA at some point.
“But we’re going to make every effort to call the game as we always have.”
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